din 


r. 


GIFT   OF 
Mrs*  W.  W.   Kemp 


THE  IRON  HUNTER 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK  •   BOSTON  •   CHICAGO  •   DALLAS 
ATLANTA  •   SAN  FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  LIMITED 

tONDON  •   BOMBAY  •   CALCUTTA 

MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  I/ra. 
TORONTO 


My  mother 
Margaret  Ann  Fannon  Osborn 


THE  IKON  HUNTER 


BY 

CHASE  S.  OSBORN 

Author  of  "The  Andean  Land" 


J!3eto  gotfe 

THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 
1919 

All  right*  reserved 


TW'/yo 


/\      .•„  .?:;*::  f 

*-•/  ::*: *»/ 


COPTBIGHT,  1919 

BY  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 


Set  up  and  clectrotyped.    Published  May,  1919. 


TO 
M.  F.  H. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 


PAGE 

I    WOLVES  —  HUMAN  AND  OTHERWISE  ...      1 
II    WHAT'S  IN  YOUR  NAME  OR  MINE?  ...     15 

III  NATURAL  BORN  REBELS 22 

IV  POVERTY    THAT    CRAMPS    AND    THEN    EX- 

PANDS THE  SOUL 37 

V    WILD  BOYHOOD  DREAMS  FILL  MY  MIND  AND 

I  ACT  UPON  THEM 48 

VI    SWEPT  INTO  THE  HUMAN   MAELSTROM   OF 

CHICAGO 60 

VII  I  DRIVE  A  COAL  WAGON  — PILE  LUMBER  — 
CAPTURE  A  MURDERER  AND  DOCK  WALLOP 
IN  MILWAUKEE 68 

VTEI  MARRIED  ON  CREDIT  I  GIVE  MY  BRIDE  A 
FIVE  CENT  BOUQUET  AND  WE  TAKE  A 
WEDDING  TRIP  ON  A  STREET  CAR  ...  81 

IX    I  UNDERTAKE  THE  STUDY  OF  IRON  ORE  AND 

ENGAGE  IN  EXPLORATION  AND  PROSPECTING    89 

X    MY  FIRST  TRIP  INTO  THE  TRACKLESS  WILDS 

OF  UNEXPLORED  CANADA 94 

XI  CHARMED  BY  THE  BEAUTY  OF  SAULT  DE 
SAINTE  MARIE  AND  FASCINATED  BY  ITS  EN- 
VIRONS I  CHOOSE  IT  AS  A  HOME  FOR  LIFE  102 

XII  I  AM.  USED  AS  A  POLITICAL  FULCRUM  BY 
JAY  HUBBELL  TO  PRY  OUT  SAM  STEPHEN- 
SON  -v  •  ,  v  =•  v'. 113 

XIII  THE  SACRIFICE  OF  GENERAL  ALGER  TO  AP- 
PEASE POLITICAL  BLOOD  HOWLERS  .  •.  .  121 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XIV  MY  ASSOCIATION  WITH  HAZEN  S.  PINGREE 
PLUNGES  ME  INTO  POLITICS  DEEPER  THAN 
EVER 127 

XV    I  BECOME  A  CANDIDATE  FOR  GOVERNOR  TO 

SUCCEED  HAZEN  S.  PINGREE  ....     137 

XVI  THE  POETRY,  CHARM,  ROMANCE  AND  USE- 
FULNESS OF  IRON  ORE 145 

XVII    IRON  ORE  BACTERIA 153 

XVIII  READING  THE  STORY  OF  THE  STONES  AS 
PRINTED  ON  THE  PAGES  OF  THE  EARTH'S 
SURFACE 159 

XIX  GREAT  LEAN  OUTCROPPING  OF  IRON  ORE 
UNSEEN  UNDER  THE  VERY  EYES  OF  THE 
WORLD  165 

XX  INTO  THE  HEART  OF  THE  ARCTIC  LAPLAND 
WHERE  THE  MYSTERIES  ARE  ATTUNED  TO 
THE  MUFFLED  FOOTFALLS  OF  SILENCE  .  .  174 

XXI    DEPOSITS  OF  IRON  ORE  AND  BEDS  OF  COAL 

UNDER  THE  SHADOW  OF  THE  POLE      .     .  184 

XXII  A  STARVATION  HIKE  TO  HUNT  FOR  A  HID- 
DEN RANGE  OF  IRON  ORE 190 

XXIII  FATHERLY   ATTITUDE   OF   JOHN   W.   GATES 

AND  JOHN  J.  MITCHELL 202 

XXIV  EATING  MOOSE  MEAT  FROM  ONE  YEAR'S  END 

TO   ANOTHER  AT   THE   MOOSE   MOUNTAIN 
CAMP     .     ,    '. 210 

XXV  SIR  DONALD  MANN  PROPOSES  TO  USE 
DOUBLE-BITTED  AXES  AS  WEAPONS  IN  A 
DUEL  WITH  A  RUSSIAN  COUNT  ....  215 

XXVI    WORLD  WORKERS  IN  IRON  IN  ALL  AGES    .     .  223 

XXVII  CONCENTRATION  OF  LEAN  ORES  IN  THE 
UNITED  STATES  —  SIDERITE  —  MAGNETITE 
—  HEMATITE  .  .  .  .....  v  *  «:,*.  .  233 

XXVIII    ACCIDENTAL  FORTUNES  FROM  IRON  ORE  .     .  244 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 

XXIX  MESABA  RANGE  IN  MINNESOTA,  THE  GREAT- 
EST IRON  ORE  DISTRICT  THE  WORLD  HAS 
EVER  KNOWN  ........  249 

XXX  CONSIDERATION  OF  CHARLES  EVANS  "HUGHES, 
WOODROW  WILSON  AND  OTHERS  IN  SEARCH- 
ING FOR  A  SUCCESSOR  TO  JAMES  B.  ANGELL 
AT  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  MICHIGAN  .  .  .  257 

XXXI    TOM   MAY'S   KERRY  PHILOSOPHY  A  SOCIAL 

THERMOMETER      ........  265 

XXXII    I  AM  ELECTED  GOVERNOR  OF  MICHIGAN     .  268 

XXXIII  I    START   A    FIGHT    AGAINST   THE    SALOON 

THAT  KEEPS  UP  TO  THE  END    ....  276 

XXXIV  FIGHTING    FOR    THE    LIFE    OF    MICHIGAN 

AGAINST  THE  HUMAN  BLOODSUCKERS  THAT 
SUBSIST  ON  SOCIETY  EVERYWHERE      .     .  280 

XXXV    MY  PART  m  THE  PRESIDENTIAL  CAMPAIGN 

OF  1912      ..........  289 

XXXVI  OFF  FOR  MADAGASCAR,  ASIA  AND  AFRICA  FOR 
A  LONG  TOUR  IN  THE  UNUSUAL  PARTS  OF 
THE  EARTH  .........  293 

XXXVII    SOME    REFERENCES    TO    BURMA,    CEYLON, 

COCHIN-CHINA,  TURKESTAN,  PERSIA     .     .  298 

XXXVIII  I  DISCOVER  ANOTHER  GREAT  IRON  ORE 
RANGE  THAT  WILL  SOME  DAY  HELP  TO 
SUPPLY  THE  WORLD  .......  305 

XXXIX  MANY  PEOPLE  OF  MICHIGAN  AGAIN  URGE  ME 
TO  TAKE  UP  THE  GONFALON  FOR  BETTER 
THINGS  IN  THE  STATE  ......  307 

XL    IN  CONCLUSION  .........  311 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


My  Mother,  Margaret  Ann  Fannon  Osborn    .  Frontispiece 

FACING 
PAGB 

Florence,  Wisconsin,  40  years  ago 98 

Where   Lake   Superior  Breaks   Through   La    Sault   de 
Sainte  Marie 108 

Author  in  typical  Primeval  Jungle  on  the  Hudson  Bay 
Height  of  Land 162 

Alfred  Noble  Promontory  —  Lake  Superior    ....  168 

Upturned  tree  where  iron  ore  was  first  discovered  on 
Lake  Superior  at  Negaunee 246 

Tom  May's  Sketch  of  Deerfoot  showing  how  a  tender- 
foot hung  a  Buck 278 

A  Press  Cartoon,  1910 284 

Afield  with  Tiglath  Pilezer  Bones  No.  II 306 

I  made  a  sun  dial  at  Camp  in  Windigo  Land  on  a 
sawed  stump  and  Emerson  Hough  inspects  it  ...  306 

My  father  —  George  Augustus  Osborn 314 


STATEMENT 

Cellini  states  that  all  men  of  whatsoever  quality  they 
be,  who  have  done  anything  of  excellence,  or  which 
may  properly  resemble  excellence,  ought,  if  they  are  per- 
sons of  truth  and  honesty,  to  describe  their  life  with 
their  own  hands ;  but  they  ought  not  to  attempt  so  fine 
an  enterprise  until  they  have  passed  the  age  of  forty. 
And  so,  he  says,  in  a  work  like  this  there  will  always 
be  found  occasion  for  natural  bragging. 

Guizot  wrote  the  history  of  France  after  undertaking 
to  tell  it  to  his  grandchildren  as  they  sat  about  his 
knee. 

When  my  friend,  Emerson  Hough,  added  his  urging 
to  that  of  my  children  and  grandchildren,  I  first  gave  a 
serious  thought  to  it.  My  father  had  a  great  prejudice 
against  autobiographies.  This  he  communicated  to  me 
congenitally. 

I  am  not  abnormally  modest,  I  think,  but  I  rebelled 
at  the  idea  of  writing  about  myself.  It  staged  my  ego 
too  prominently. 

"  The  fact  is,"  said  Mr.  Hough,  "  you  unconsciously 
possess  such  a  Gargantuan  ego  that  you  think  you  must 
conceal  it  by  a  false  show  of  modesty.  If  you  were 
really  modest,  you  would  not  think  of  your  ego,  but 
would  as  willingly  write  of  yourself  as  of  another." 

Others  supported  him.  And  even  with  it  all  I  feel 
like  explaining  the  reason  why  I  consented  to  try. 


STATEMENT 

I  confess  I  am  glad  to  have  my  Marco  Polo  and 
Abbe  Hue  and  my  Stephenson  and  Eoosevelt  and  Sid- 
ney. And  I  would  set  great  store  by  it  if  I  had  a  life  of 
my  own  grandfather. 

Probably  the  decision  to  set  down  what  follows  grew 
from  the  belief  that  the  opportunities  of  life  in  America 
are  as  numerous  as  they  ever  were.  If  I,  as  an  average 
American,  and  that  is  all  I  claim  to  be  or  wish  to  be, 
can  have  done  the  things  that  engaged  my  existence, 
others  may  also  have  enlivened  hope. 

With  gratefulness  to  God  for  His  mercy  and  protec- 
tion and  providence  and  for  all  the  wondrous  blessings 
I  have  enjoyed,  I  submit,  as  incomplete,  a  sketch  of 
some  of  the  work  of  my  life. 

I  view  the  future  for  my  country,  my  family,  my 
friends  and  myself  cheerfully  and  hopefully,  in  the  light 
of  God's  love  and  His  merciful  direction. 

CHASE  S.  OSBORN. 
Sault  de  Sainte  Marie,  Michigan, 
December,  1918. 


THE  IRON  HUNTER 

CHAPTER  I 
WOLVES  — HUMAN  AND  OTHERWISE 

HOSE  awful  wolves  I ! !  " 

My  wife  exclaimed,  as  a  long,  low,  blood- 
freezing  howl  sifted  to  our  ears  with  the  pine- 
needle,  wind  rhythms.  It  came  from  a  mile  north  on 
the  course  of  a  late  fall  gale.  Our  baby,  a  girlie  a  year 
old,  slept  like  a  little  hairless  savage  in  a  padded,  corn- 
can  box.  The  wolf  howl  did  not  reach  the  tiny  ears. 
We  were  in  the  back  room  of  a  rakish,  one-story  shack. 
There  were  three  such  rooms,  just  little  cages  partitioned 
with  rough  ceiling  boards,  with  broken  tongues  and 
warped  edges,  making  cracks  that  prevented  anything 
like  eye  privacy.  As  for  hearing,  our  ears  were  not  shut 
off  at  all.  I  used  the  front  end  of  the  building  as  a 
printing  office.  It  contained  an  old  Washington  hand 
lever-press  and  a  new  Taylor  cylinder,  painted  as  flor- 
idly as  a  German  reception  room.  There  were  two  job 
presses,  a  Peerless  and  a  Universal  —  both  new  —  a 
paper  cutter,  imposing  stone,  type  cases,  small  piles  of 
print  and  job  papers,  a  big  box  stove,  and  the  usual  ath- 
letic towel,  ethiopic  with  ink.  The  smell  that  came 
from  the  room  needed  no  ambergris  as  a  matrix,  but  was 
like  wild  roses  in  the  nostrils  of  a  young,  country  news- 
paper man. 

1 


2  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

The  blood-searching  howl  was  repeated  in  greater  vol- 
ume —  four  wolves  this  time.  It  was  getting  late  in 
the  little  mining  town,  but  drunken  shouts  and  the  crack 
of  a  shot  could  now  and  then  be  heard. 

"  We  can't  live  here,  Chase,"  my  wife  said.  "  Even 
if  we  can,  it  is  no  place  for  the  baby." 

"  You  are  right,"  I  replied.  "  Just  give  me  a  little 
time  to  clean  this  place  up  and  make  it  a  fit  place  for 
decent  people.  If  I  fail,  we  will  go  back  to  Milwaukee 
or  some  other  place  where  outlaws  are  not  the  law." 

This  took  place  at  Florence,  Wisconsin,  in  the  heart  of 
the  Menominee  iron  range,  one  of  the  Lake  Superior 
iron  ore  districts.  Conditions  here  were  similar  to 
those  of  every  new  range.  There  is  always  an  outlaw 
headquarters  in  all  new  regions  remote  from  disciplined 
centers.  Florence,  at  this  period  of  the  early  eighties, 
was  a  metropolis  of  vice.  There  was  gambling  on  the 
main  streets,  outdoors  in  clement  weather  and  un- 
screened indoors  when  driven  in  by  cold  and  storm. 
Prostitution  was  just  as  bold.  Its  red  passion  garbings 
paraded  every  prominent  place  in  town.  A  mile  out  of 
town,  Mudge's  stockade  was  the  central  supply  station. 
It  was  the  prison  used  by  the  nerviest  white  slavers  that 
ever  dealt  in  women.  A  big  log  camp  with  frame  gables 
held  a  bar  and  dance  hall  and  stalls  on  the  first  floor. 
On  the  second  floor  were  rooms  about  the  size  of  those 
in  a  Tokio  Yoshiwara.  A  third-floor  attic  contained 
dungeons  and  two  trap  doors.  In  the  cellar  were  dark 
cells  and  a  secret  passage,  well  timbered  with  cedar, 
leading  to  where  the  hill  on  which  the  stockade  was 
located  broke  down  into  a  dense  swamp.  Surrounding 
this  camp  of  death,  and  worse,  were  sharp  pointed  pali- 
sades, ten  feet  high,  of  the  kind  used  against  the  Indians 
to  inclose  pioneer  blockhouses.  There  were  loopholes. 


WOLVES  —  HUMAN  AND  OTHERWISE       3 

Two  passages  led  through  the  stockade.  One  was  wide 
enough  to  admit  a  team.  This  was  fastened  with  horn- 
beam cross  bars.  The  other  entrance  was  narrower  and 
for  commoner  use.  It  was  protected  by  a  solid  sliding 
gate  of  ironwood.  On  either  side  of  this  gate,  inside, 
two  big,  gaunt,  terrifying  timber  wolves  were  chained. 
It  was  the  howls  of  these  four  wolves  we  had  heard. 
This  stockade  was  a  wholesale  warehouse  of  women. 
There  were  several  in  the  Lake  Superior  iron  country 
in  the  early  days,  but  I  think  this  one  at  Florence  was 
the  most  notorious  and  the  worst.  It  was  built  by  "  Old 
Man  "  Mudge.  He  was  a  white-livered,  sepulchral  in- 
dividual who  wore  a  cotton  tie,  a  Prince  Albert  coat  and 
a  plug  hat ;  even  wore  this  outfit  when  he  fed  the  wolves. 
Mudge  worked  as  a  preacher  through  northern  Indi- 
ana and  Ohio  and  the  scoundrel  used  his  clerical  make- 
up to  fine  advantage.  He  had  a  ready  tongue  and 
roped  in  girl  after  girl.  Not  much  attention  was  paid 
in  those  days  to  pimping  and  procuring.  Whenever  a 
murder  grew  out  of  his  acts,  the  old  fox  would  so  in- 
volve his  trail  that,  if  it  led  anywhere  at  all,  a  church 
was  at  the  end  of  it,  and  that  would  throw  off  the  sleuth. 

Old  Mudge  ruined  his  daughter  Mina,  and  she  was 
"  keeper  "  of  the  place.  Mina  Mudge  was  a  stunning 
woman.  Her  concentrated  depravity,  for  she  too  had 
a  child  and  brought  it  up  in  infamy,  was  glossed  over 
by  a  fine  animal  figure,  a  rubescent  complexion,  semi- 
pug  nose,  lurking  gray  eyes,  sensual  lips  and  sharpish 
chin.  Her  lips  were  the  clew  to  passion,  and  eyes  and 
chin  betokened  the  cruelty  of  a  she  hyena.  Girls  were 
wheedled  or  beaten  into  submission,  and  nearly  always 
when  she  sold  them  she  had  them  broken  to  the  business. 

Two  days  before,  in  the  evening,  a  shrinking,  girlish 
young  woman  was  found  just  outside  our  door  by  my 


4  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

wife.  She  cowered  and  shivered  and  looked  wild-eyed. 
It  took  some  time  to  coax  her  in.  After  warmth  and 
food,  she  told  her  story.  Old  Mudge  had  found  her  on 
a  farm  in  Ohio.  An  orphan,  she  was  sort  of  bound 
out,  and  her  life  was  one  of  work  and  little  else. 
Rather  attractive,  she  was  spied  by  the  old  serpent,  and 
taken  north  "  to  a  good  home."  In  her  heart  the  girl 
was  good  and  she  was  brave.  Mina  Mudge  starved 
her,  beat  her,  tied  her  ankles  and  wrists  with  thongs 
and,  to  break  her  in  with  terror,  fastened  her  just  out 
of  the  reach  of  the  wolves.  It  was  night,  and  the  girl 
grew  cold  with  exposure  and  fear.  Her  wrists  and 
ankles  shrunk  some,  and  she  wriggled  out  of  the  cut- 
ting thongs.  Then  she  fled  to  the  swamp  and  hid  until 
hunger  forced  her  to  search  for  food.  We  took  as  good 
care  of  her  as  our  means  afforded  and  planned  her  com- 
plete rescue.  The  day  we  heard  the  wolves  howling, 
as  mentioned  in  the  beginning  of  the  chapter,  the  girl 
disappeared.  It  was  years  later  before  I  knew  what 
had  befallen  her.  Mudge's  gang  had  located  and 
trapped  her.  They  forcibly  kidnaped  her  and  carried 
her  to  the  wolf  stockade.  There  she  was  given  no 
chance  again  to  escape.  Her  spirit  was  broken.  She 
was  sold  to  a  brothel-keeper  in  Ontonagon  County, 
Michigan,  and  was  murdered  by  him  one  night  in  a 
ranch  near  to  the  Lake  Superior  shore.  Murders  often 
occurred,  but  those  guilty  were  seldom  punished. 
When  this  girl  so  mysteriously  disappeared  from  our 
house,  I  was  suspicious.  I  went  to  the  sheriff,  an  Irish 
saloon-keeper,  but  could  not  get  him  to  act.  He  was 
either  a  member  of  the  gang  or  honestly  afraid. 

The  Mudge  gang  was  organized  over  a  territory  in- 
cluding the  region  for  five  hundred  miles  south  of  Lake 
Superior  from  Canada  to  Minnesota.  "  Old  Man " 


WOLVES  — HUMAN  AND  OTHERWISE       5 

Mudge  was  as  much  of  a  genius  in  some  directions  as 
he  was  a  devil  in  others.  Compared  with  him,  Machia- 
velli  was  a  saint.  They  did  not  confine  themselves  to 
woman  stealing.  They  would  run  off  witnesses  when 
arrests  occurred  near  the  law-and-order  line.  If  they 
could  not  get  rid  of  them  any  other  way,  the  witnesses 
were  killed.  Any  man  who  showed  an  inclination  to 
oppose  the  gang  was  either  intimidated  or  murdered. 
Within  their  own  ranks  a  rebel  never  got  away  alive. 
Mudge  tolerated  no  rivals.  No  sea  pirate  was  ever 
more  bloodthirsty  or  vengeful.  The  most  notorious 
murder  he  was  responsible  for  was  that  of  Dan  Dunn, 
at  Trout  Lake.  Dunn  was  just  as  bad  a  man  as  Mudge, 
and  not  so  much  of  a  sneak  about  it.  That  was  really 
how  Mudge  came  to  get  him. 

Such  were  conditions  in  the  iron  country  when  I 
arrived.  The  picture  cannot  be  overdrawn.  I  had 
gone  there  upon  a  telegram  sent  by  Hiram  D.  Fisher, 
discoverer  of  the  Florence  mine,  to  Colonel  J.  A.  Wat- 
rous  of  Milwaukee,  asking  him  to  "  send  up  a  young 
fellow  not  afraid  to  run  a  newspaper."  It  was  a  weekly 
publication.  The  owner  and  editor,  a  man  of  culture 
and  courage,  too  old  and  too  fine  for  the  rough  pioneer- 
ing and  outlaws,  had  just  "  disappeared."  The  gang 
was  against  all  newspapers  and  dead  against  any  that 
tried  to  improve  conditions  or  oppose  them  in  any  way. 
Just  a  little  time  before  they  had  burned  the  Manis- 
tique  Pioneer  office  and  had  tried  desperately  but  un- 
successfully to  assassinate  its  brave  editor,  the  late 
Major  Clarke,  a  veteran  of  the  Civil  War.  All  along 
the  line  they  had  terrorized  editors  if  possible.  So  the 
first  night  after  I  arrived  they  shot  out  my  windows 
and  shot  a  leg  off  one  of  the  job  presses,  just  to  show 
me  what  they  would  do  to  me  if  I  wasn't  "  good." 


6  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

A  short  time  before  that  the  gang  had  gotten  down 
on  Captain  William  E.  Dickinson,  superintendent  of  the 
Commonwealth  mine,  two  miles  from  Florence.  Cap- 
tain Dickinson  had  come  there  from  the  ISTew  York  mine 
in  one  of  the  older  Lake  Superior  districts.  He  was 
fearless  and  a  man  of  order  and  high  ideals.  With  a 
fine  family  of  yoimg  children,  he  felt  the  necessity  of 
improving  conditions.  Successful  in  his  previous  en- 
vironment, he  did  not  apprehend  serious  trouble.  But 
he  did  not  correctly  take  the  measure  of  the  desperate 
characters  who  made  up  the  Mudge  gang.  Hardly  had 
he  started  to  move  against  them  before  they  stole  his 
little  son  Willie.  They  sent  him  word  that  if  he  fought 
them  they  would  kill  the  child.  It  was  a  knife  in  his 
heart,  the  wound  of  which  finally  carried  him  to  his 
grave.  Captain  Dickinson  spent  money,  followed 
clews,  sent  spies  to  join  the  gang  and  gave  up  every 
thought  except  the  recovery  of  his  little  son.  It  is 
nearly  forty  years  ago  now.  Captain  Dickinson  has 
gone  to  his  final  reward.  Where  Willie  Dickinson  is 
or  what  became  of  him  or  whether  he  is  dead  or  alive, 
is  a  mystery  to  this  day.  It  is  the  most  piteous  tragedy 
of  scores  enacted  by  the  iron  pirates. 

Something  had  to  be  done.  I  began  a  study  of  the 
situation  in  detail.  The  encouraging  fact  was  de- 
veloped that  the  law-abiding  citizens  outnumbered  the 
outlaws.  A  majority  of  them  were  timid  and  could 
not  be  depended  upon  to  act,  but  we  could  be  certain 
that  not  many  of  them  would  openly  join  the  leeches. 
Many  men  with  families  deplored  conditions  but  feared 
that  a  war  on  the  toughs  would  hurt  business.  Hasn't 
it  been  always  so  ?  Then  to  my  amazement  and  cha- 
grin, for  I  was  only  twenty-three  years  old  and  to  a 
degree  unsophisticated,  I  uncovered  the  fact  that  that 


WOLVES  — HUMAN  AND  OTHERWISE       7 

Borgia  of  a  Mina  Mudge  had  something  on  half  or  more 
of  the  merchants,  who  thought  easily  or  made  that  ex- 
cuse to  their  conscience,  that  they  had  to  be  good  fel- 
lows and  go  to  her  place  with  the  miners  and  woodsmen 
in  order  to  get  business.  The  outlaws  were  able  to  keep 
close  tab  on  the  plans  of  any  who  threatened  them 
through  these  dwellers  in  the  twilight  zone  of  morals. 
As  soon  as  I  could  be  certain  of  some  backing,  I  at- 
tacked Mudge  and  his  gang  in  my  little  paper.  It  was 
a  thunderer  there  though,  no  matter  what  its  size.  I 
charged  crimes  home  and  named  those  who  were  guilty 
or  probably  so,  whenever  I  had  facts  or  tangible  sus- 
picions. The  time  must  have  been  just  ripe  for  it  for 
some  astounding  things  occurred.  Some  of  those 
against  whom  I  made  charges  came  to  see  me;  not  all 
peaceably.  But  from  some  of  them  I  obtained  denials 
of  participation,  and  one  or  two  gave  to  me  invaluable 
inside  information.  Consequently  I  was  informed  in 
advance  when  my  office  was  to  be  wrecked,  and  when 
I  was  to  be  gotten  rid  of.  I  built  a  little  conning  place 
of  glass  and  kept  some  one  on  watch  there  every  day- 
light moment.  Also  I  bought  Winchesters  for  all  the 
office  force,  and  for  a  long  time  every  type  stand  was 
a  gun  rack  for  a  repeating  rifle.  At  night  I  took  extra 
care  and  kept  watch.  A  couple  of  faithful  dogs  with 
plenty  of  bulldog  blood  guarded  the  office,  and  were 
much  better  for  the  purpose  than  Mudge's  wolves,  but 
did  not  make  as  terrifying  a  setting  in  the  mind  of  a 
tenderfoot. 

I  found  a  fighting  preacher  at  the  little  mission 
church  in  Florence  in  the  person  of  Harlan  Page  Cory, 
a  young  Presbyterian  just  suited  to  the  work  to  be  done 
and  entirely  unafraid.  An  undersheriff  named  Char- 
ley Noyes,  from  the  Androscoggin  country,  was  found 


8  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

to  be  clean  and  brave  and  dependable.  Bill  Noyes, 
his  brother,  was  a  six  footer  plus,  and  the  best  shot  and 
dry  ground  trailer  anywhere  around.  He  was  not 
afraid  of  a  mad  catamount,  and  his  morals  had  sprouted 
in  the  Green  Mountains  where  Ethan  Allen  got  his. 
Bill  was  eager  to  help  clean  up. 

A  little  concave-chested  hardware  man  named  Rolb- 
stell,  with  whiskers  like  a  deer  mouse  and  a  voice  like 
a  consumptive  cuckoo,  was  found,  when  the  meter  was 
applied  to  him,  to  be  as  full  of  good  points  as  a  box 
of  tacks.  There  was  no  law  against  shining  deer  in 
those  days ;  anyhow  not  in  Florence.  Rolbstell  built  a 
scaffold  one  day,  twenty  feet  up  in  a  birch  that  leaned 
over  a  connecting  gut  of  Spread  Eagle  Lake,  where  a 
fine  runway  crossed.  The  first  dark,  soft  night  that 
came  he  climbed  up  there  with  a  bull's-eye  lamp  cocked 
over  his  left  eye.  He  nearly  went  to  sleep  before  he 
heard  anything.  Then  he  suddenly  came  to  and  saw  a 
pair  of  silvery  eyes  and  let  go  at  them.  Forgetting  in 
his  state  of  mind  where  he  was,  he  stepped  off  the  scaf- 
fold just  as  if  he  had  been  on  the  solid  ground  and  down 
he  went.  That  is  where  Rolbstell  made  his  reputation. 
He  lit  astride  of  a  two-hundred-pound  buck  that  he  had 
wounded  and  which  was  floundering  in  about  four  feet 
of  water.  Of  course,  he  lost  his  gun  in  the  descent. 
Pulling  out  his  tomahawk,  he  nearly  chopped  the  buck's 
head  off  before  he  succeeded  in  killing  him.  Rolbstell 
had  plenty  of  that  intestinal  courage  that  was  the  fas- 
cination of  Tsin,  who  built  the  Great  Wall  and  meas- 
ured all  men  by  it.  So  he  became  a  leader,  if  not  the 
leader,  in  the  new  movement. 

With  these  and  others  assured,  we  called  a  meeting 
and  organized  the  Citizen  Regulators.  The  meeting 
was  such  a  hummer  and  so  many  joined  that  the  sheriff 


WOLVES  — HUMAN  AND  OTHERWISE       9 

aud  district  attorney  had  a  street  duel  the  next  day, 
growing  out  of  a  row  that  was  caused  by  each  trying 
to  shift  blame  upon  the  other.  I  had  publicly  charged 
them  both  with  being  controlled  by  the  Mudge  gang. 
The  district  attorney  shot  the  sheriff  through  the  lungs. 
A  lot  of  the  sheriff's  friends  got  a  rope  ready  to  hang 
the  lawyer,  who  really  was  one  of  the  worst  of  citi- 
zens, while  the  sheriff  had  told  several  that  he  intended 
to  join  the  Regulators.  Meanwhile  the  sheriff  lived 
long  enough  for  the  mob  to  cool  off.  The  preacher  and 
I  decided  that  we  must  get  rid  of  all  crooked  and  cow- 
ardly officials. 

I  started  to  Milwaukee  and  Madison  to  enlist  influ- 
ence and  see  the  governor,  in  order  to  have  the  district 
attorney  removed  and  a  man  appointed  who  would  en- 
force the  law.  All  the  way  to  Milwaukee  I  was  har- 
assed by  telegrams  for  my  arrest.  The  gang  tried  to 
capture  me  at  the  train,  but  I  learned  of  their  plans  in 
time  to  elude  them.  Then  we  had  a  wild  race  through 
the  woods  to  the  Michigan  line.  If  they  had  caught  me 
in  Wisconsin  they  were  going  to  finish  me  in  some  way. 
The  pursuit  kept  up  almost  to  Iron  Mountain,  which 
was  nearly  as  bad  as  Florence  at  the  time.  I  dodged 
them  but  was  afraid  to  stop  at  Iron  Mountain  because 
the  local  authorities  there  were  believed  to  be  under 
the  control  of  the  Mudge  outlaws.  It  was  night.  I 
had  expected  to  take  an  evening  train.  Prevented  from 
doing  this,  I  ran  two  miles  through  the  woods  to  Com- 
monwealth. There  one  of  my  faithful  printers,  an 
Irish  lad  named  Billy  Doyle,  had  a  team  in  waiting. 
Hastily  climbing  into  the  buckboard  and  taking  the 
lines,  I  lashed  the  horses  into  a  gallop.  Over  my  shoul- 
ders I  could  see  the  gang  coming  on  foot,  on  horse  and 
in  rigs.  I  had  a  Colt's  revolver  and  could  shoot  it  quite 


10  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

well  enough.  Billy  had  thrown  in  a  Winchester.  I 
made  up  my  mind  they  would  riot  take  me  in  Wisconsin 
without  a  fight.  We  madly  galloped  over  the  corduroy 
roads  in  the  dark.  That  it  was  night  and  the  pursuers 
were  unorganized  was  all  that  saved  me.  We  crossed 
the  line.  On  the  outskirts  of  Iron  Mountain  I  gave 
the  reins  to  Billy  and  jumped  out  and  went  on  alone. 
Safely  making  a  detour  of  the  town,  I  took  the  rail- 
road track  and  hiked  southwards  towards  law  arid  order. 
I  was  in  Michigan.  Between  Keel  Ridge  arid  Quin- 
nesec  three  men  stepped  out  of  the  gloom  and  leveled 
guns  at  my  head.  I  obeyed  their  order  to  hold  up  my 
hands  and  they  took  me  back  to  Iron  Mountain  by  main 
force,  and  not  a  sign  of  legal  warrant.  They  were 
Mudge  agents.  It  was  after  midnight.  I  made  a  big 
roar  as  soon  as  I  got  where  anybody  could  hear.  In 
spite  of  the  racket  I  made  they  took  me  to  a  place 
which  was  not  the  jail  and  locked  me  in  a  room.  Be- 
fore they  got  me  confined  I  managed  to  send  word  to 
Cook  and  Flarmigan,  whose  firm  of  attorneys  at  Norway 
was  the  ablest  on  the  Range.  The  late  Hon.  A.  C.  Cook 
got  to  me  and  secured  my  release.  To  this  day  I  do 
not  know  how  he  did  it.  Perhaps  his  partner,  R.  C. 
Flannigan,  now  a  prominent  mining  country  judge,  and 
a  good  one,  could  tell  if  he  wished  to.  I  continued  on 
my  way.  Efforts  were  made  to  stop  me  at  Marinette 
and  Green  Bay.  These  were  unsuccessful.  Finally 
I  got  to  Milwaukee  where  I  had  any  number  of  strong 
friends.  Lemuel  Ellsworth  had  just  become  chief  of 
police,  and  the  present  Milwaukee  chief,  John  T.  Jans- 
sen,  was  on  the  detective  staff.  I  went  to  the  central 
station  to  call  upon  them,  as  they  were  old  friends  of 
mine  during  my  police  reporter  days.  The  chief 
handed  me  a  telegram  to  read.  It  was  for  my  arrest. 


WOLVES  — HUMAN  AND  OTHERWISE      11 

They  had  sent  it  to  the  wrong  place.  I  told  my  story. 
All  of  us  knew  the  chief  affectionately  as  Lem.  He 
said: 

u  Glad  to  see  you,  Chase.  Now,  let's  do  something  to 
those  hell-hounds.  I  will  wire  I  have  you  and  ask 
them  to  send  for  you  with  a  strong  guard.  This  will 
possibly  bring  a  crowd  of  them  down,  and  I  will  throw 
them  all  into  the  bull  pen." 

"  Of  course  I  can't  wait  to  do  that,"  I  replied,  for 
I  had  to  accomplish  my  bigger  mission  and  return  as 
quickly  as  possible. 

During  the  afternoon  I  received  a  telegram  signed 
"  H.  P.  Cory."  It  read :  "  Don't  come  back.  They 
are  going  to  kill  you  if  you  do." 

I  knew  it  as  a  fake  at  once,  for  that  preacher  would 
have  had  me  come  back  and  be  killed  rather  than  have 
me  run  away  from  the  fine  fight  I  had  started.  I  felt 
the  same  way.  It  was  only  wisdom  to  be  apprehensive 
enough  to  be  on  the  alert,  as  the  gang  had  not  hesitated 
to  resort  to  murder  in  the  dark  before. 

I  saw  rugged  Jeremiah  M.  Rusk,  then  governor  of 
Wisconsin,  and  secured  the  appointment  of  a  clean,  but 
rather  gentle  lawyer  named  Howard  E.  Thompson  as 
district  attorney,  to  succeed  the  Mudge  gang  lawyer, 
who,  although  possessed  of  a  kind  of  brute  bravery,  got 
out  of  the  way.  Before  he  had  downed  the  sheriff  that 
officer  had  bowled  him  over,  after  being  shot  through  the 
body  himself,  and  stood  over  him,  futilely  snapping  a 
revolver,  all  the  loads  of  which  had  been  discharged,  in 
a  frantic  attempt  to  kill.  Then  the  sheriff  fell  into  the 
pool  of  blood  that  had  trickled  around  his  feet  and  the 
lawyer  bad  man  was  run  off. 

Governor  Rusk  gave  me  every  encouragment. 

"  Go  after  them,  boy,"  he  said,  "  and  if  you  need 


12  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

help  just  say  the  word.  I'll  back  you  with  the  troops 
if  it  is  necessary." 

I  made  my  way  back  north  about  as  rapidly  as  I  had 
fled.  The  gang  was  in  a  panic  when  they  saw  me  and 
heard  of  the  support  the  governor  had  fortified  me  with. 
I  had  it  told  to  them  in  as  amplified  and  impressive 
a  manner  as  possible  arid  then  I  played  it  up  in  my 
paper  with  all  my  might  and  type.  The  gang  was  on 
the  run  from  that  time,  but  it  was  not  beaten  yet. 
Dives  and  relays  were  started  along  the  border  so  that 
the  outlaws  could  jump  from  one  State  to  the  other 
handily. 

Claudius  B.  Grant  was  a  circuit  judge  in  the  adjacent 
region  of  Michigan.  He  became  a  terror  to  the  bad 
men  and  women  and  clearly  showed  what  a  man 
rightly  constituted  can  do  with  the  law  in  his  own  hands. 
He  was  waging  a  solitary  war  against  the  gang,  and 
sheriffs  and  prosecuting  attorneys  who  were  their  tools. 
Finally  he  made  it  so  hot  for  them  on  his  side,  and  we 
so  reciprocated  on  our  side  that  the  bad  people  began 
to  look  for  other  and  less  troublesome  pastures.  They 
fled  to  Seney,  Trout  Lake,  Ewen,  Sidnaw,  Hurley  and 
other  points  in  the  Lake  Superior  country  out  of 
Grant's  jurisdiction,  and  out  of  our  reach,  where  they 
operated  for  some  years  without  molestation.  There 
was  a  temporary  renascence  of  outlawry  in  Judge 
Grant's  district  because  the  gang  had  gotten  rid  of 
him  by  designedly  electing  him  to  the  Supreme  Court 
of  Michigan.  But  it  did  not  last  long.  Civilization 
must  have  something  more  than  that  kind  of  outlawry 
to  subsist  upon,  and  civilization  was  growing  a  good 
deal  like  a  weed. 

All  of  this  was  not  achieved  as  easily  as  it  has  been 
briefly  written.  There  were  many  clashes  and  excit- 


WOLVES  — HUMAN  AND  OTHERWISE     13 

ing  performances.  Both  sides  were  high  handed. 
Shootings  occurred  by  day  and  night,  and  the  fight  was 
a  real  battle. 

At  first  the  gang  had  nearly  all  the  law  officers  on 
its  side.  By  degrees  we  changed  this.  The  average 
follow  in  office  is  quick  to  try  to  pick  the  winning  side. 
These  trimmers,  usually  so  despicable,  were  a  real  help 
to  us  because  they  trimmed  gradually  to  our  side. 

Mudge  withdrew  his  worst  operations  to  more  remote 
spots  in  the  woods.  The  Regulators  determined  to 
clean  all  of  them  out.  The  law  was  too  slow  under  the 
conditions  that  existed  and  the  punishments  inadequate. 
At  the  time  there  was  really  no  law  against  white  slav- 
ery and  procuring. 

Pat  McHugh,  a  bully  and  retired  prize  fighter,  was 
Madge's  head  man.  Nearly  everybody  was  afraid  of 
him.  He  had  even  been  known  to  fight  in  the  day- 
time with  his  backers  at  hand,  and  he  was  fairly  quick 
with  a  gun,  but  could  not  fan.  On  a  day  agreed  upon 
the  Regulators,  armed  with  Winchester  rifles,  Colt  re- 
volvers and  blacksnake  whips,  started  on  a  rodeo.  They 
drove  the  toughs  off  the  streets.  Those  who  did  not 
move  quickly  enough  were  lashed  smartly  with  the 
blacksnakes.  Theirs  had  been  a  reign  of  terror  long 
enough.  It  was  our  turn.  They  showed  as  many  tem- 
peraments as  one  could  find  among  any  men  and  women. 
Some  were  whimpering  cowards.  Others  were  sullen. 
The  women  were  most  bold  and  loudest  in  profanity 
and  vulgarity.  A  woman  has  capacity  to  be  the  very 
best  and  the  very  worst.  McHugh  was  one  of  the  first 
to  run.  He  hid  in  the  swamp  stockade  with  half  a 
dozen  others  of  the  gang.  The  Regulators  rode  down 
against  them.  They  opened  a  hot  fire  with  Winchester 
repeaters.  The  Regulators  replied  and  charged.  It 


14  THE  IKON  HUNTER 

fell  to  Bill  Noyes  to  capture  Pat  McHugh.  The  bully 
had  often  boasted  what  he  would  do  to  Bill  if  he  ever 
got  a  chance.  Now  he  fled  into  the  swamp,  revolver 
in  hand.  Bill  saw  him  and  ran  after  him.  They 
dodged  from  tree  to  tree,  Indian  fashion,  exchanging 
shots  from  time  to  time.  Bill  was  too  good  a  woods- 
man for  McHugh.  He  loaded  his  gun  as  he  ran  and 
soon  had  a  drop  on  the  leader  of  the  outfit.  McHugh 
fell  on  his  knees  and  begged  for  mercy.  Bill  spared 
him.  He  said  to  me  only  a  short  time  ago : 

"  Chase,  I  reckon  I  oughta  killed  that  red-handed 
devil  that  day  I  got  him  in  the  swamp,  but  I'm  kinda 
glad  I  didn't,  'cause  it  goes  agin  the  grain  with  me  to 
kill  anything  I  can't  eat." 

After  that  we  burned  a  number  of  stockades  and 
soon  had  the  community  so  fit  to  live  in  that  I  spent 
four  happy  years  there.  And  my  wife,  who  had  given 
up  a  good  home  to  share  her  lot  with  a  young  reporter, 
was  contented,  and  our  girlie  grew  fat  and  crowed  when 
her  first  brother  was  born  in  the  little  boarded  rooms 
full  of  cracks,  in  the  rear  of  the  one-story,  country 
printing  office. 

What  became  of  Mudge  will  never  be  told.  Only  a 
half  dozen  Regulators  ever  knew. 


CHAPTER  II 
WHAT'S  IN  YOUR  NAME  OB  MINE? 

THE  name  Osborn,  Osborne,  Osburn,  Osbern,  Os- 
beorn,  et  cetera,  has  an  interesting  genesis,  true 
of  the  origin  of  most  family  names,  with  source 
variations  dependent  upon  what  name  system,  Teutonic 
or  other,  is  consulted.  Leo's  "  Essay  on  Anglo-Saxon 
Names/'  published  in  1841,  appears  to  be  as  thorough 
as  any  and  has  become  an  authority.  "  Bearo "  or 
"  bern,"  betokens,  as  gathered  from  Kemble's  "  Char- 
ters/7 a  fruitful,  productive  wood,  yielding  beechnuts, 
acorns  and  other  mast,  wild  pears,  crabapples,  paw- 
paws, persimmons,  and  other  wild  fruits  of  the  forest. 
The  word  "  beran,"  meaning  to  yield,  to  produce  fruit, 
evolves  into  bear,  barron,  boren,  be  re,  barley.  Beam, 
a  child,  the  fruit  of  the  body,  and  bearo,  bero,  byro, 
the  fruit  wood,  are  similar  derivatives. 

These  things  I  am  setting  down,  not  because  of  any 
especial  name  vanity,  but  for  the  reason  that  these 
references  suggest  the  manner  of  the  making  and  the 
giving  of  all  family  names,  the  reader's  as  well  as  mine 
and  all  others.  Also  the  growth  system  of  our  language 
is  indicated  by  the  way  family  names  have  started  and 
by  their  methods  of  change  in  obedience  to  the  influence 
of  thought  and  time. 

Ferguson,  in  his  "  Surnames  as  a  Science  "  builds 
my  name  of  the  Old  North  "  As  "  or  the  Anglo-Saxon 
"  Os,"  implicative  of  the  deity  and  "  beorn,"  meaning 

15 


16  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

bear.  He  says  the  name  is  Norse  and  means  "  The  Di- 
vine Bear  "  or  "  Godbear."  Lower's  "  Patronymica 
Britanriica,"  published  1860,  says  that  Osborn,  Os- 
borne,  Osbern,  Osbernus  and  so  forth  are  variations  of 
a  very  common  baptismal  name.  Several  persons  bear- 
ing these  names  are  referred  to  in  Domesday  as  tenants 
in  chief  in  different  counties  of  England. 

William  Arthur,  father  of  Chester  A.  Arthur,  brought 
out  a  name  hunt  book  in  1857,  in  which  he  says  Osborn 
is  Saxon,  from  bus,  house,  and  beam,  a  child,  hence  a 
family  child  or  perhaps  an  adopted  child. 

Bowditch's  "  Suffolk  Surnames,"  Boston,  1861, 
makes  very  free  with  Arthur's  offerings,  as  Arthur  had 
done  with  other  name  sleuths,  and  says  Osborn  means 
"  housechild." 

Bardsley's  "  English  Surnames,"  says  that  "  Os  "  as 
a  root  word  carrying  the  significance  of  deity  has  made 
for  itself  a  firm  place  among  English  names,  as  proven 
by  Osborn,  Oswald,  Oswin,  Osmond,  Osmer,  Osgot, 
Osgood,  Oslac  (Asluck,  Hasluck,  etc.). 

Edmunds,  in  "  Traces  of  History  in  Names  of 
Places,"  says  Osborn  means  "  brave  bear." 

Sophy  Moody,  in  "  What  is  Your  Name  ?  "  has  it 
that  Osborn  means  "  a  chief  appointed  by  the  gods." 

"  Gentry,  Family  Names,"  Philadelphia,  1892,  gives 
"  Os  "  as  hero  and  "  beorn  "  as  chief,  general,  prince, 
king,  hence  hero  king,  or  something  akin  to  it. 

In  "  Homes  of  Family  Names  in  Great  Britain," 
Guppy,  1890,  I  find  the  claim  that  my  name  was  borne 
by  farmers  or  yeoman  attached  to  the  soil  in  England 
before  the  Norman  Conquest,  According  to  Guppy, 
it  was  confined  south  of  a  line  joining  the  Humber  and 
the  Mersey,  and  its  principal  area  of  distribution  is  in 
the  form  of  a  belt  crossing  Central  England  from  East 


WHAT'S  IN  YOUR  NAME  OR  MINE     17 

Anglia  to  the  borders  of  Wales.  Though  well  repre- 
sented also  in  the  southwest  of  England,  especially  in 
Somerset  and  Cornwall,  it  is  rare  or  absent  in  the  other 
south  coast  counties  excepting  Sussex.  Osborne  is 
common  in  England  and  Osborn  is  uncommon  in  com- 
parison, although  the  latter  is  sprinkled  through  Bed- 
fordshire, Buckinghamshire,  Cambridgeshire,  Cornwall, 
Derbyshire,  Essex,  Gloucestershire,  Hertfordshire,  Lin- 
colnshire, Norfolk,  Northamptonshire,  Somersetshire, 
Suffolk,  Sussex,  Worcestershire  and  Warwickshire. 

A  book  with  author's  name  not  given,  "  The  Norrnan 
People  and  their  existing  descendents  in  the  British 
Dominions  and  the  United  States,"  London,  1874,  con- 
tains a  dictionary  of  3000  Norman  names.  I  gather 
here  that  our  family  descends  from  a  Kentish  branch 
of  the  family  of  Fitz-Osberne,  seated  in  that  county 
early  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VI,  where  Thomas  Osberne 
appeared  to  a  writ  of  quo  warranto  for  the  Abbey  of 
Dartford.  The  family  had  come  from  Essex  and  Suf- 
folk, where  the  name  is  traced  to  Thomas  Fitz-Osberne, 
1227-1240,  who  granted  lands  to  Holy  Trinity.  His 
grandfather,  Richard  Fitz-Osberne  or  Fitz-Osbert,  held 
a  fief  from  Earl  Bigot  in  1105  and  was  ancestor  of  the 
Lords  Fitz-Osberne  summoned  by  writ  in  1312.  Fitz- 
Letard  Osbern  came  to  England  in  1060  and  held  lands 
from  Odo,  of  Bayeux  in  1086. 

"  The  Battle  of  Abbey  Roll  with  some  account  of  the 
Norman  Lineages,"  by  the  Duchess  of  Cleveland,  has 
many  references  to  the  Osborns. 

"  Dugdale  Baronage  of  England,  or  an  Historical 
Account  of  the  Lives  and  Most  Memorable  Actions  of 
our  English  Nobility  in  the  Saxon  Times  to  the  Norman 
Conquest,  and  from  thence  of  Those  who  had  Their 
Rise  before  the  end  of  Henry  Ill's  Reign,"  genealog- 


18  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

ical  tables,  etc.,  3  volumes,  by  the  author  of  "  Monasti- 
con  Angelicanuin,"  published  1675,  is  a  notable  work 
and  a  chief  authority  for  that  time  in  what  it  purports 
to  cover.  Planche,  in  "  The  Conqueror  and  His  Com- 
panions," visits  it  liberally,  as  do  other  writers  dealing 
with  that  era. 

In  Lower's  "  English  Surnames  "  I  found  a  story  of 
the  Osborn  name  which,  whether  true  or  false,  mirrors 
the  times  arid  depicts  the  light  regard  mediaeval  mon- 
archs  had  for  the  lands  and  property  of  the  people  that 
were  vested  in  the  crown.  Walter,  a  Norman  knight 
and  a  great  favorite  of  King  William  the  First,  playing 
at  chess  with  his  Sire  on  a  summer  evening  on  the  banks 
of  the  River  Ouse,  won  all  he  played  for.  The  King 
said  he  had  nothing  more  to  play  for  and  was  about  to 
quit  the  game. 

"  Sire,"  said  Walter,  "  here  is  land." 

"  There  is  so,"  replied  King  William,  "  and  I  will 
further  play  with  thee.  If  thou  beatest  me  this  game 
also,  thine  is  all  this  land  on  this  side  the  bourne  (river) 
which  thou  canst  see  as  thou  sittest." 

Walter  won. 

King  William  clapped  him  on  the  shoulder  and  de- 
clared : 

"  The  lands  are  yours.  Henceforth  shall  you  be  a 
lord,  and  have  the  name  '  Ousebourne.' '  And  thence 
sprang  the  family  of  Osborn. 

The  family  name  is  treated  in  Burke's  "  General 
Armory  "  and  especially  in  Burke's  "  Vicissitudes  of 
Families." 

In  the  Church  of  Dives,  Normandy,  is  a  roll  of  the 
"  Companions  of  William  in  the  Conquest  of  England 
in  1066."  It  gives  Osbern  d'Arquess,  Osbern  du  Ber- 


WHAT'S  IN  YOUR  NAME  OR  MINE      19 

nib,  Osbern  d'Eu,  Osbern  Giffard,  Osbern  Pastforiere, 
Osboru  du  Quesnai,  Osborn  du  Soussai,  and  Osbern  de 
Wauci.  I  have  thought  that  the  word  Osborn  in  this 
roll  was  synonymous  with  Chieftain;  at  least  to  desig- 
nate feudal  retainers  of  the  Conqueror  from  the  parts 
of  Normandy  mentioned. 

Undoubtedly  William  Fitz-Osbern  was  the  nearest 
personal  friend  of  William  the  Conqueror.  J.  R. 
Planche,  in  "  The  Conqueror  and  His  Companions," 
says  he  was  and  also  that  Osbern  was  the  chief  officer 
of  the  household.  He  fought  in  all  the  battles  in  Nor- 
mandy during  the  twenty  years  which  immediately  pre- 
ceded the  invasion  of  England,  from  that  of  Val-es- 
Dunes,  in  1047,  to  that  of  Varaville,  in  1060,  and  took 
part  in  the  expedition  against  Conan,  in  Brittany,  and 
in  the  invasion  of  Maine  in  1063.  Osbern  is  men- 
tioned in  the  accounts  of  the  siege  of  Domfront  in  1054, 
when  he  was  sent  to  demand  an  explanation  from  Geof- 
frey Martel  of  his  conduct  in  marching  into  Normandy 
and  seizing  Alencon.  I  shall  now  quote  a  few  pages 
from  Planche's  story  of  this  Osbern,  mostly  because  of 
its  rather  odd  sidelight  upon  a  most  important  event  in 
history : 

"  Osbern  seems  to  have  resembled  the  Conqueror,  his  mas- 
ter, in  character,  combining  great  valor  with  readiness  of 
wit  and  astuteness  of  policy.  We  have  seen  him  entering 
the  hall  of  the  palace  at  Rouen  humming  a  tune  and  rous- 
ing the  moody  Duke  from  his  silent  and  sullen  consideration 
of  the  news  from  England  by  bidding  him  bestir  himself 
and  take  vengeance  upon  Harold,  who  had  been  disloyal  to 
him ;  to  call  together  all  he  could  call,  cross  the  Channel  and 
wrest  the  crown  from  the  perjured  usurper.  The  Duke 
called  his  retainer  '  Osbern  of  the  Bold  Heart.' 

"  At  the  large  assembly  of  the  whole  baronage  of  Nor- 


20  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

mandy  at  Lillebonne  to  consider  the  question  of  fighting 
Harold,  the  audacity  and  cunning  of  Osbern  displayed  it- 
self in  an  amazing  effrontery  that  saved  the  day  for  the 
Conqueror.  The  barons  were  irresolute  and  even  rebellious. 
Puzzled  and  ill  at  ease  the  council  finally  turned  to  the 
wily  Dapifer  Osbern  and  asked  him  to  be  their  spokesman; 
to  say  to  their  lord  that  they  not  only  feared  the  sea  but 
were  not  bound  to  serve  him  beyond  it.  No  such  decision 
did  Osbern  voice.  Upon  the  exact  contrary,  to  the  amaze- 
ment and  confusion  of  the  nobles,  he  told  the  Duke  that 
they  were  loyal  to  a  man  and  eager  to  serve  him;  that  he 
who  should  bring  twenty  men  would  bring  forty;  that  he 
who  was  bound  to  serve  with  one  hundred  would  bring  two 
hundred,  and  that  the  one  assigned  five  hundred  would 
bring  a  thousand  and  so  on  down  the  line  he  represented 
that  all  the  barons  would  double  their  quota,  thus  insuring 
success.  As  for  himself,  Osbern  promised  to  furnish  sixty 
ships  with  full  crews  of  fighting  men.  At  first  the  barons 
were  crazed  with  indignation,  but  stupefied  and  bewildered. 
Out  of  the  wild  disorder  thus  created,  one  of  them  was  sud- 
denly stricken  with  the  idea  that  if  all  would  do  as  Osbern 
had  unwarrantedly  promised  the  campaign  could  not  fail. 
And  one  by  one  they  consented." 

Taylor's  list  of  William  the  Conqueror's  ships  puts 
Osbern  at  the  head  and  agrees  with  Wace  that  he  fur- 
nished sixty  ships  and  crews.  The  record  reads: 
"Habuit  a  Willielmo  Dapifero,  filio  Osberni  LX 
naves." 

At  another  time  Wace  tells  of  Osbern's  chiding  the 
Conqueror  before  a  battle,  demanding  less  delay  and 
indecision.  He  commanded  the  men  from  Boulogne 
and  Paix,  rode  a  horse  covered  from  head  to  tail  with 
fine  woven  iron  chain  armor.  Even  though  Osbern  was 
the  only  companion  of  the  Conqueror  who  ever  dared 
to  cross  him  or  bluntly  advise  him,  he  was  much  loved 
and  was  granted  lands,  position  and  honor  in  England 
by  William  after  the  Conquest,  and  he  and  his  family 


WHAT'S  IN  YOUR  NAME  OK  MINE     21 

have  never  since  been  separated  from  the  history  of 
England. 

The  Norse  Osborns  were  also  an  interesting  people. 
Our  family  has  always  clung  to  the  idea  that  it  had  a 
Scandinavian  origin,  easily  tracing  the  name  histori- 
cally to  participants  in  the  Norse  invasion  of  England. 


CHAPTEE  III 

NATURAL    BORN    REBELS 

OSBORN  is  the  English  corruption  for  polar  bear 
or  godbear  in  Danish,  Swedish  and  Norwegian, 
whether  spelled  Isbjorn,  Esbjerne  or  otherwise. 
Our  family  story,  is  that  our  ancestor  was  one  of  two 
jarls,  who  got  into  England  at  the  invasion  of  800. 
The  other  was  promptly  killed,  and  sometimes  I 
fear  I  have  made  certain  persons  wish  both  had 
been.  George  the  Settler  brought  one  wing  of  our 
family  to  America  and  others  came  during  the  Huge- 
not  hegira  to  Massachusetts.  The  fact  that  there  was 
much  titled  nobility  in  the  family  did  not  keep  some 
of  my  forbears  from  being  rebels.  They  fought  with 
Cromwell  in  the  Black  Watch  and  with  the  Irish  kings. 
For  so  long  had  they  lived  in  the  British  Isles  that  they 
were  scattered  throughout  England,  Ireland,  Scotland 
and  Wales.  To  this  day  a  royal  chateau  on  the  Isle  of 
Wight  bears  our  family  name  and  the  favorite  yacht 
of  King  Edward  VII  bore  it  also.  A  lot  of  us  must 
have  been  naturally  democratic  despite  those  of  the 
family  who  courted  royal  favor.  Every  movement  of 
reform  from  the  time  of  King  John  and  the  affair  at 
Runnymede  and  on  through  the  religious  wars  has  been 
participated  in  by  my  kinsfolk.  The  American  Revo- 
lution found  most  of  the  family  in  New  Jersey  and 
New  York.  As  usual,  a  split  occurred.  Some  became 
rebels  under  Washington  and  others  were  Tories;  later 


NATURAL  BORN  REBELS  23 

these  mostly  went  back  to  England  or  moved  to  Canada. 
To  make  a  distinction  the  rebels  dropped  the  final  "  e  " 
and  spelled  their  name  "  Osborn."  The  Tories  re- 
tained the  "  e  "  and  so  ashamed  were  they  of  my  grand- 
sires  that  many  of  them  made  even  greater  changes  in 
spelling,  such  as  Osbourne,  and  even  Gisborne.  Some 
of  the  Gisbornes  got  as  far  away  from  us  as  they  easily 
could  by  going  to  New  Zealand,  where  they  founded  a 
flourishing  town.  During  a  visit  to  Gisborne  I  had 
many  talks  about  our  common  ancestors  with  my  dis- 
tant relatives,  and  much  wholesome  laughter. 

My  twice  great  grandfather,  John  Osborn,  was  a 
revolutionary  chaplain  and  an  uncle  was  a  captain. 
Several  others  served  as  privates.  The  record  of  all 
is  good  without  being  especially  dramatic. 

My  grandfather,  Isaac  Osborn,  was  born  in  a  fishing 
village  on  the  northwest  coast  of  Long  Island,  in  1795. 
He  carried  a  musket  as  a  private  in  the  War  of  1812, 
and  was  slightly  wounded  at  Lundy  Lane.  In  1818 
he  was  married  to  Sarah  Pardee  at  Guilford,  Connecti- 
cut. One  of  my  grandmother's  uncles  had  a  private 
French  school  at  New  Haven,  in  the  vicinity  of  where 
Yale  College  was  afterward  located.  The  fact  that  she 
was  a  refined  young  woman  only  made  her  more  eager 
to  help  make  powder  and  mold  bullets  during  the  War 
of  1812.  The  same  heroic  tendency  inspired  to  abet 
my  grandfather  in  his  pioneering  dreams.  Finally 
they  started  to  cross  the  Alleghenies  with  an  ox  team. 
Following  the  trail  of  westward  emigration  my  grand- 
father located  on  the  Ohio  River  at  Madison,  Indiana. 
He  had  been  a  fisherman  and  it  was  not  such  a  big 
change  to  become  a  riverman.  It  was  not  long  before 
he  owned  a  flat  boat  and  soon  afterwards  we  find  him 
trading  as  far  down  river  as  New  Orleans.  He  would 


24  THE  IKON  HtJNTEB 

steer  his  laden  boats  down  the  current  and  sell  his 
cargo  and  also  his  scows  wherever  the  best  trade  could 
be  made.  Then  he  would  return  home  overland. 

There  came  a  day  when  he  did  not  return.  Grand- 
mother told  me  when  I  was  a  little  boy  that  grand- 
father had  a  fleet  of  five  flat  boats  on  his  last  trip,  laden 
with  a  miscellaneous  assortment  of  hogs,  cattle,  wheat, 
corn,  maple  sugar,  furs,  beans,  and  so  forth.  He  ex- 
pected to  realize  between  four  and  five  thousand  dol- 
lars for  his  outfit.  He  was  last  heard  of  after  selling 
out  at  New  Orleans  and  starting  for  home.  Years 
afterward  a  lot  of  skeletons  were  found  in  a  hole  in  a 
cellar  underneath  a  tavern  that  was  a  kind  of  a  back- 
woods, halfway  house,  near  where  Memphis  now  stands, 
where  river  traders  horsebacking  north  were  accommo- 
dated. It  turned  out  to  be  a  worse  murder  trap  than 
the  Benders  had  in  Kansas.  So  far  as  ever  could  be 
learned  my  grandfather  was  one  of  the  many  murdered 
at  that  place.  He  had  had  all  of  his  capital  invested 
in  the  outfit.  It  left  my  grandmother  almost  destitute. 
She  just  waited  long  enough  for  my  father,  George  Au- 
gustus Osborn,  to  be  born,  a  posthumous  child,  Febru- 
ary 28,  1823,  and  then  moved  up  to  Cincinnati  and,  as 
she  was  fitted  for  the  profession,  became  a  school  teacher 
until  she  married  Amos  Davis  as  her  second  husband. 

My  father  was  twelve  years  old  at  the  time.  He  had 
learned  to  chew  tobacco  and  swear  on  the  river  levee 
by  the  time  he  was  three  years  old.  I  remember  now 
with  what  needless  chagrin  he  would  discuss  his  boy- 
hood with  me  —  after  he  had  become  a  man  of  as  much 
probity  of  character  as  I  have  ever  known,  and  a  total 
abstainer  from  all  forms  of  tobacco  and  liquor.  He 
rebelled  at  once  against  the  new  step-daddy  and  very 
soon  afterward  ran  away  from  home.  By  the  time  he 


NATURAL  BORX  REBELS  25 

was  eighteen  he  had  acquired  quite  some  education,  and 
owned  a  little  water-power  saw  mill  in  the  backwoods 
of  Ohio,  where  only  the  best  walnut  logs  were  ripped 
up,  the  rest  going  into  rails  or  wood  or  brush  fires. 

Amos  Davis  was  a  leading  spiritualist,  and  was  said 
to  have  possessed  the  most  numerous  library  of  books 
upon  spiritualism  west  of  the  Allegheny  Mountains. 
My  father,  who  had  become  a  Wesleyan,  grew  to  hate  his 
stepfather,  and  in  seeking  afterwards  for  a  reason  was 
inclined  to  attribute  this  to  the  spiritualism  excitant. 
He  confessed  to  me  that  he  burned  his  stepfather's 
books  every  chance  he  got,  and  was  encouraged  to  do  so 
by  his  Wesleyan  Sunday  school  teacher,  which  glimpses 
the  pioneer  Buckeye  intolerance  of  the  day.  In  this 
way,  to  my  deep  regret,  most  of  the  great  Davis  library 
disappeared.  I  inherited  a  few  of  the  books,  and 
strange  enough  are  they.  One  is  an  "  Epic  of  the 
Starry  Heavens,"  presumed  to -have  been  written  by  dis- 
embodied poets,  but  proving  that  a  poet  can  be  no  worse 
while  in  the  body.  Another  is  a  mysterious  work  de- 
voted to  the  subject  of  "  Spiritual  Transference  of 
Thought,"  and  even  of  more  substantial  things.  As  a 
boy  I  used  to  devour  this  ghost  book  until  I  could  not 
sleep  of  nights.  But  none  of  it  would  my  father  have. 

He  sawed  walnut  lumber,  built  houses,  hunted  cata- 
mounts, deer,  coons  and  squirrels,  wrestled  and  studied 
medicine  with  an  old  doctor  of  the  horse-syringe  school. 
It  was  while  in  the  backwoods  of  Piqua  County,  Ohio, 
at  the  village  of  Circleville,  that  he  met  and  married 
Margaret  Ann  Fannon,  my  sainted  mother.  She  was 
the  most  superb  woman  I  have  ever  known,  and  I  try 
to  think  of  her  apart  from  being  my  mother  so  that 
I  can  be  certain  she  was  most  wonderful  as  all  mothers 
are  wonderful.  I  do  not  know  much  about  her  family 


26  THE  IKON  HUNTER 

because  both  of  her  parents  died  of  a  mysterious  sickness 
within  two  days,  when  my  mother  was  a  babe  in  arms. 
The  disease  was  called  "  milk  sickness."  Nobody  knew 
anything  about  it  or  how  to  cure  it,  nor  do  they  to  this 
time.  During  a  critical  epoch  in  Ohio  and  Indiana 
hundreds  of  pioneers  died  from  it.  It  was  more  deadly 
than  the  Indians  and  beside  it  "  fever  and  agur  "  were 
just  nothing  at  all.  It  was  supposed  to  be  caused  by 
poisoned  milk  because  it  occurred  at  a  certain  time 
when  the  cows  ranged  in  the  woods  and  pastured,  feed- 
ing upon  many  strange  herbs.  Dr.  Victor  Vaughan, 
dean  of  the  medical  school  of  the  University  of  Mich- 
igan, than  whom  there  is  not  a  more  earnest  devotee 
of  medical  research  in  the  world,  writes  to  me  that  the 
"  milk  sickness  "  so-called  of  the  pioneer  days  in  the 
Ohio  and  Wabash  basin,  was  and  is  yet  a  medical  mys- 
tery. Happily  it  disappeared  when  the  land  was  cul- 
tivated. 

My  mother  was  born  at  Circleville,  Piqua  County, 
Ohio,  April  30,  1827.  She  was  of  immediate  Prot- 
estant Irish  descent,  although  her  grandfather  on  her 
mother's  side  was  a  McGrath  and  a  great  grandfather 
was  a  McKenna.  When  her  parents  died,  leaving  her  a 
homeless,  helpless  baby,  a  big-hearted  neighboring  fam- 
ily named  Hoblett  took  her  to  "  raise."  ^The  Hobletts 
had  numerous  children  of  their  own  but,  as  it  was  with 
most  of  the  pioneers,  there  was  plenty  of  room  around 
the  warm  hearth  stone  of  their  hearts.  Children  were 
always  being  desolated  by  one  tragedy  or  another  and 
in  belief  that  theirs  might  be  next,  a  feeling  developed 
that  insurance  for  the  future  could  only  be  had  by  acts 
of  kindness  on  all  sides.  It  is  not  a  bad  investment 
to-day  and  can  be  depended  upon  right  now  to  pay  royal 
dividends  of  happiness. 


NATURAL  BORN  REBELS  27 

The  Hobletts  saw  to  it  that  the  eagerness  my  mother 
showed  for  learning  did  not  go  unappeased.  They 
gave  her  as  good  a  chance  as  their  own  youngsters  had, 
and  she  took  advantage  of  it,  with  the  result  that,  al- 
though schools  were  crude  and  teachers  equally  so,  my 
mother  had  a  better  education  in  her  girlhood  than  most 
young  women  of  the  time.  This  she  improved  every 
day  of  her  long  and  useful  life.  Of  course  she  could 
cook,  and  knit,  and  weave,  and  on  a  pinch  she  was  a 
good  rifle  shot,  albeit  she  did  not  like  wantonly  to  kill 
things.  In  this  sentiment  as  in  all  things  she  was 
truly  womanly. 

The  supernal  matrix  of  life  has  an  instinctive  re- 
spect for  all  sentient  things. 

One  evening  in  the  Autumn  a  fat  young  buck  joined 
the  homestead  herd  of  cattle  that  was  foraging  near  the 
log  cabin.  There  was  no  one  at  home  except  my  mother. 
The  deer  would  make  the  very  best  jerked  venison  for 
winter  use.  My  mother  took  the  big  rifle  down  from 
its  deer  horn  rack,  softly  opened  the  little  window 
enough  to  admit  the  barrel,  poked  it  through  and  shot 
the  deer.  I  think  this  story  fevered  my  boyish  blood 
more  than  any  other. 

My  mother  was  almost  twenty  years  old  when  she  was 
married  to  rny  father.  This  occurred  in  April,  1847. 
My  father  was  twenty-four.  It  was  getting  to  be  too 
tame  around  Circleville  for  my  father,  so  they  soon 
made  up  their  minds  to  trek  to  Indiana.  Their  first 
child,  Eugene,  was  born  in  Ohio  and  then  the  little 
family  in  1848  started  off  through  the  woods  for  the 
West.  From  that  moment  their  lives  were  filled  with 
work  and  unrest.  They  entered  government  land  in 
Blackford  County,  Indiana,  and  fought  malaria  there. 
It  was  deadly.  Two  children  died  its  victims.  Other 


28  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

little  ones  came  to  take  their  place.  Three  more  were 
born  in  Blackford,  two  daughters  and  a  son  —  Emma, 
Georgiana  and  Stephen  Pardee,  named  for  my  paternal 
grandmother's  brother,  who  had  entered  lands  in  what 
is  now  the  heart  of  Chicago.  On  the  land  occupied 
there  by  my  parents  oil  and  gas  wells  of  great  value 
were  found  later.  In  1858  they  moved  to  Huntington 
County,  Indiana,  where  prospects  for  health  and  life 
seemed  better.  My  father  had  become  a  doctor  and  my 
mother  had  been  studying  medicine  with  him.  They 
had  some  practice  but  not  enough  to  afford  a  living. 
To  eke  out,  my  father  kept  a  little  store,  bought  walnut 
timber,  which  was  coming  to  have  a  small  market  value, 
and  industriously  traded. 

Exciting  times  had  brewed.  Even  before  leaving 
Ohio  my  father  had  become  a  devoted  abolitionist  and 
was  so  earnest  that  he  often  aided  negroes  running  away 
to  Canada  by  driving  Allen's  "  underground  "  railway, 
an  inclosed  night  wagon  that  was  used  for  spiriting 
negroes  northward.  In  the  "  Tippecanoe  and  Tyler 
too,"  log-cabin  campaign  he  had  marched  and  carried 
a  torch  and  a  coon-skin  banner  and  had  riotously  sung 
songs,  and  even  tried  to  vote  although  he  was  only  a 
slip  of  a  boy.  His  open  endeavor  to  vote  before  of  age 
was  a  joke  in  the  neighborhood  for  years.  All  this  in- 
sured that  he  would  have  part  in  the  inflammatory 
drama  that  was  enacted  in  Indiana  just  before  and  dur- 
ing the  war.  No  one  who  is  not  familiar  with  those 
border  social  conflagrations  can  understand  them  at  all. 
Bitterness  was  not  common  in  the  far  South  until  actual 
war  was  translated  there.  Nor  did  the  furnace  of  pas- 
sions reach  such  a  great  incandescence  farther  north. 
It  was  where  the  north  and  south  came  together  along 
that  line  of  frictional  contact  run  by  Mason  and  Dixon, 


NATURAL  BORN  REBELS  29 

that  the  feeling  assumed  a  fierce  rancor  that  made  for 
monomania  and  homicidal  obsession.  There  were  more 
Copperheads  than  Union  men  in  our  part  of  Hunting- 
ton  County,  but  they  came  very  far  from  having  their 
own  way.  A  Union  flag  was  hoisted  at  the  log  school 
house,  and  a  bloody  fight  in  which  bowie  knives  and 
rifles  were  used  came  off  when  the  Copperheads  tried  to 
pull  it  down  but  failed.  The  Southern  sympathizers 
wore  butternuts  as  insignias  of  their  sentiments.  Their 
women  were  especially  violent.  More  than  once  a  riot 
broke  out  on  Sunday  at  the  services  in  the  log  meeting 
house.  Men  would  generally  go  for  the  open,  but  the 
women  would  pull  each  other  over  the  benches,  tear  and 
scratch  and  pummel  and  drag  each  other  around  by  the 
hair. 

It  is  difficult  to  adjust  the  mind  to  a  realization  that 
these  things  happened  such  a  short  time  ago.  We  have 
made  advances  on  our  way  but  the  trail  we  must  travel 
is  still  a  long  one  and  so  often  very  dim. 

In  such  an  atmosphere  I  was  born  January  22,  1860, 
in  Huntiugton  County,  Indiana,  in  a  little  log  house 
of  two  rooms  with  one  real  glass  window  and  two  others 
of  greased  paper.  Wabash,  in  an  enjoining  county 
fourteen  miles  away,  was  our  big  town.  It  had  a  pop- 
ulation of  over  two  hundred.  There  were  meeting 
houses  at  ^Etna,  Lagro,  Dora  and  New  Holland,  all 
near  by,  and  about  equidistant  in  various  directions. 
Not  far  away  were  the  Wabash,  the  Salimonie  and  the 
Mississiuiwa  rivers,  beautiful  streams  full  of  channel 
cats  and  silver  bass,  now  stealing  quietly  along  some 
bepooled  dark  bank  only  to  burst  over  a  limestone  ledge 
with  golden  transparency  and  jolly  gurglings,  just  like 
the  complexion  and  laughter  of  a  Hoosier  girl. 

Judging  from  what  I  have  been  told  by  my  parents 


30  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

and  sisters  and  older  brothers,  I  was  one  of  those  puny 
babies  that  modern  eugenics  would  condemn  to  infantile 
death,  indeed  a  peaceful  issue  of  life  compared  with 
running  the  gauntlet  of  American  politics  and  business, 
but  not  nearly  so  enjoyable.  I  could  digest  nothing  and 
had,  among  other  things,  a  bloody  flux  that  drained  my 
body  of  almost  the  last  vital  spark.  But  my  mother 
was  in  advance  of  her  time  in  baby  raising.  She  made 
gruel  for  me  of  the  germ  scrapings  near  the  cob  of  green 
sweet  corn.  This,  with  the  delicate  pulp  just  inside 
the  skin  of  the  grape,  supplied  nutrition.  Outdoors  in 
the  air  night  and  day,  with  rides  on  old  "  Snip,"  held  on 
a  pillow,  and  walks  in  the  same  fashion  won  me  strength 
slowly.  Once  they  lost  me  off  a  pillow.  It  took  a  fight 
every  minute  for  three  years  to  save  my  life.  Even 
then  the  first  words  I  spoke  as  a  babe  were  "  Solly  me  " 
—  sorry  me. 

My  earliest  recollection  is  of  seeing  soldiers  in  blue 
uniforms  and  of  telling  a  lie  to  my  mother.  There  is 
no  connection  between  them.  My  mother  to  get  rid  of 
me  and  amuse  me  made  a  fishing  outfit  for  me  by  tying 
a  thread  to  a  gad  on  which  she  fastened  a  pin  hook 
baited  with  a  little  piece  of  plantain  leaf.  With  this 
she  said  I  might  go  to  a  little  nearby  ditch  and  fish  for 
frogs.  I  do  not  even  know  whether  there  were  frogs 
or  fish  but  I  think  none.  However  I  returned  with  a 
famous  story.  I  told  my  mother  that  I  caught  so  many 
frogs  that  I  could  not  carry  them  and  that  then  I 
stopped  catching  frogs  and  caught  fish  and  also  caught 
so  many  of  them  that  I  could  not  carry  them.  She  did 
not  ask  me  why  I  had  not  brought  all  I  could  carry, 
but  with  much  sober  concern  quietly  took  me  by  the 
hand  and  carrying  a  large,  homemade  bag  in  the  other, 
started  down  to  the  ditch.  My  alarm  was  terrible.  I 


NATUEAL  BOKNT  KEBELS  31 

had  not  looked  ahead  at  all  and,  as  I  was  not  yet  four 
years  old,  this  did  not  betoken  abnormal  stupidity. 
On  the  way  I  tried  to  convince  my  mother  that  the 
frogs  and  iish  might  all  have  jumped  back  in ;  that  in 
fact  most  of  them  had  before  I  left.  She  asked  me 
why  I  didn't  bring  home  such  as  were  left.  After  much 
deep  thought  I  replied  that  they  were  jumping  around 
so  fast  and  were  so  slick  that  I  couldn't  pick  them  up. 
On  we  went  to  the  scene  of  the  big  catch.  My  mother 
looked  the  ground  over  and  we  marched  back  even  more 
soberly  than  our  going.  When  we  got  to  the  house  she 
talked  to  me  about  the  sin  of  lying.  Then  she  made  a 
lather  of  soft  soap  and  thoroughly  washed  out  my 
mouth.  I  thought  it  the  nastiest  dose  I  had  ever  taken, 
although  children  of  that  time  and  in  that  part  of  In- 
diana were  dosed  all  the  time  with  all  sorts  of  hor- 
rible stuff.  After  soaping  my  mouth  my  mother  made 
me  kneel  at  her  knee  and  ask  God  to  forgive  me.  That 
touched  my  little  heart,  and  made  an  impression,  with 
many  tears,  that  is  as  vivid  now  as  it  was  at  the  moment. 
My  father  enlisted  for  the  war.  He  was  promised 
an  assistant  surgeon's  position.  On  his  way  on  horse- 
back to  Indianapolis  the  beast  stumbled  and  dragged  my 
father  for  a  long  distance  through  the  woods.  His  head 
was  hurt,  several  ribs  were  broken,  his  spine  was  in- 
jured and  there  were  internal  bruises.  After  that  he 
was  an  invalid  for  the  remainder  of  his  life.  He  was 
six  feet  tall,  weighed  two  hundred  pounds,  and  had  been 
a  powerful  man.  His  life  had  been  filled  with  energy 
that  drove  him  to  many  deeds.  Once  he  had  gone  for 
a  time,  west  of  Iowa,  among  the  Indians  then  wild,  for 
study  and  exploration.  On  his  way  home  from  the  trip 
he  had  been  the  house  guest  of  Joseph  Smith,  the  Mor- 
mon prophet  at  Nauvoo.  Father  told  me  that  eight 


32  THE  IKON  HUNTEK 

women  sat  at  the  table  with  the  prophet  and  himself, 
and  he  understood  all  of  them  were  wives.  Joseph 
Smith  was  gentle  in  his  household,  father  said,  and  al- 
though he  greatly  detested  Mormonism,  he  always  spoke 
kindly  of  Smith  and  regretted  his  assassination. 

Two  more  children  were  born  in  Huntington  County 
—  Horace  Edwin  in  1862  and  Charles  Eussell  in  1864. 
My  mother  began  to  take  the  lead  as  a  doctor.  She  had 
learned  much  from  my  father.  Both  had  strong  intel- 
lects. My  father  was  impetuous  and  extreme.  My 
mother  was  calm  and  lovely.  Both  had  by  now  de- 
veloped lofty  characters.  In  1857  my  father  had  gone 
to  Cleveland  to  study  hydropathy  at  a  sanitarium.  The 
great  water  cure  discoveries  of  Vincenz  Priessnitz  were 
taking  hold  of  America,  fostered  by  such  English  and 
American  hydropathic  propagandists  as  Gully  and 
Shew.  Heavy  dosing  was  the  order  of  the  day  until  the 
average  patient  measured  his  prospects  for  recovery 
by  the  quantity  of  nauseous  drugs  he  swallowed.  To 
pretend  to  cure  anybody  of  anything  with  just  simple 
pure  water  seemed  a  grotesquery  if  not  an  insanity. 
But  my  parents  were  courageous  and  would  not  fool 
anybody  even  with  a  placebo.  They  compounded  their 
own  prescriptions  and  carried  their  own  medicine  as 
did  most  practitioners  of  the  time. 

The  older  children  were  growing  up.  Grandmother 
had  been  a  school  teacher.  My  parents  realized  the  ad- 
vantages of  schooling.  The  opportunities  in  the  back- 
woods were  slight.  So  they  decided  to  move  by  wagon 
to  LaFayette.  I  had  passed  my  sixth  year,  had  helped 
to  carry  in  wild  turkeys  my  older  brother  Eugene  had 
shot  just  back  of  our  brush  fence,  and  had  heard  the 
story  in  eager  tones  of  the  bear  tracks  in  our  deadening. 
I  had  tried  to  ride  a  bull  calf  with  the  willing  help  of 


NATURAL  BORX  REBELS  33 

my  brothers  and  had  done  a  lot  of  things  that  attached 
me  to  the  place.  The  watermelon  patch  was  a  luscious 
place,  and  the  melons  grew  almost  large  enough  for  me 
to  hide  behind.  So  I  cried  when  they  talked  of  moving 
away.  That  did  not  postpone  proceedings.  One  day 
the  things  had  all  been  loaded  into  three  wagons,  one  of 
them  covered  for  the  family  like  a  prairie  schooner,  and 
we  started.  We  had  three  teams  and  were  regarded  as 
rich.  I  remember  father  and  my  older  brothers  march- 
ing beside  their  teams,  and  they  would  let  me  walk  as 
far  as  I  could.  Our  two  dogs,  Carlo  and  Rover,  would 
dart  off  the  road  after  rabbits,  or  bark  as  they  treed 
black  and  gray  squirrels.  Not  infrequently  they 
flushed  wild  turkeys.  The  meals  we  had  on  that  trek 
were  taken  from  boxes  in  the  wagon  and  cylinder  re- 
ceptacles of  hollow  logs  with  the  ends  closed  with  skins. 
The  elders  shot  game  enroute,  and  we  got  fruit  that  was 
mostly  wild. 

The  rough  read  followed  near  the  canal  along  the 
Wabash  River.  Everybody  called  it  the  canawl.  Swift 
packets,  making  as  much  as  six  miles  an  hour,  carried 
passengers  and  mail,  and  drove  a  swash  along  the  banks 
that  looked  to  my  boyish  eyes  like  a  big  ever-running 
water  snake.  We  had  plenty  of  snakes,  too,  and  I  knew 
their  motion  —  blue  racers,  blacksnakes  and  rattlers. 
Mules  and  bony  horses,  driven  tandem,  plodded  along 
the  towpath  driven  by  ragged,  barefoot  and  often  hat- 
less  boys.  It  was  interesting  to  see  them  pass  the  locks. 

One  afternoon  the  wagons  started  a  down-hill  run  to 
cross  a  creek  that  flowed  into  the  Wabash.  It  was  quite 
terrifying  the  way  the  wagons  swayed,  but  the  worst 
was  to  come.  When  the  horses  were  midstream  we 
heard  a  blood-curdling  scream.  The  animals  plunged 
madly  and  ran  as  hard  as  they  could  in  the  water  as  thev 


34  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

were.  I  looked  out  and  just  ahead  and  off  to  the  left 
I  saw  a  monster  coming  and  the  horses  saw  it  too.  It 
was  belching  white  smoke  and  sparks,  and  I  was  cer- 
tain we  must  be  near  the  gateway  of  hell  and  that  this 
was  the  devil  about  to  catch  us  and  drag  us  in.  I  had 
never  seen  or  heard  of  a  locomotive  and  had  not  seen 
an  engine  of  any  kind.  The  fear  it  caused  in  me  could 
not  be  overdrawn.  It  was  an  old  wood-burner  on  what 
was  then  the  new  Wabash  Valley  Railroad,  afterwards 
the  Toledo,  Wabash  &  Western,  and  now  the  Wabash. 
The  young  children  could  not  realize  and  the  older  ones 
knew  better,  so  I  had  a  monopoly  of  fright.  There 
were  seven  of  us  children  on  this  expedition,  the  young- 
est two  years  and  the  eldest  eighteen. 

How  many  women  to-day  would  dream  of  starting 
on  a  single  day's  railroad  journey  with  seven  children  ? 
However,  I  think  they  would  if  they  had  to,  because 
women  to-day  are  confronted  by  more  dangers  than  their 
mothers  were.  Social  pitfalls  are  worse  than  ever  were 
Indian  ambushes,  and  the  suffering  and  death  they 
bring  are  worse  than  the  scalping  wounds,  or  the  toma- 
hawk hacks  of  the  gauntlet  that  maimed  only  the  body 
and  left  the  heart  purer  and  the  soul  more  serene  than 
before. 

We  were  over  two  weeks  on  the  road.  On  rainy  days 
we  mostly  camped  while  the  older  males  hunted  and 
fished  for  the  larder.  There  was  no  travel  on  Sunday, 
and  on  Monday  we  stopped  to  permit  mother  and  the 
girls  to  do  our  washing. 

In  this  way  we  moved  to  LaFayette.  Soon  we  were 
sumptuously  installed  in  a  big,  three-story,  frame  house, 
with  four  acres  of  grounds  surrounding,  and  barns,  out- 
buildings, fruit  trees,  shrubs,  flowers  and  gardens. 
Contrast  this  with  the  woods  and  the  little  log  house 


NATURAL  BORN  REBELS  35 

we  had  left.  We  children  thought  it  was  a  palace  and 
our  father  a  king.  Aunt  Goldthwaite  had  come  out 
some  time  before  from  Connecticut  to  visit  us  and  told 
us  fairy  stories,  just  enough  to  make  us  wonder  and 
credit  to  the  fairies  all  the  things  we  could  not  under- 
stand. My  present  from  Aunt  Goldthwaite  was  a  toy 
watch  —  we  called  it  a  "  dumb  "  watch  then.  No  Wal- 
tham,  Patek-Phillippe  or  Jurggeson  since  has  been 
worth  a  quarter  as  much !  Down  below  the  hill  reposed 
the  city,  and  just  then  LaFayette  was  a  sleepy  place. 
Near  by  were  neighbors.  Everything  was  as  different 
as  it  could  be.  We  had  a  real  lamp  with  something 
green  in  the  oil  bowl  and  a  ground  glass  globe  and 
shining  chimney.  It  was  kept  in  the  parlor,  that  holy 
of  holies  of  the  time,  and  never  lighted.  Candles  made 
our  light,  and  father  used  two  at  a  time  when  he  read, 
and  snuffed  them  with  his  fingers  in  a  manner  that  fired 
all  of  us  with  emulation. 

The  big  house  had  a  huge  cellar.  Soon  there  were 
mysterious  goings  on  in  it.  My  eldest  brother  was  the 
only  one  of  the  children  permitted  the  secret.  But  we 
learned  when  the  time  came  that  father  was  an  in- 
ventor ;  that  he  had  devised  one  of  the  first  stoves  with 
an  oven  and  that  now  he  had  designed  a  washing  ma- 
chine. We  did  not  know  that  nearly  everybody  of  that 
period  had  invented  a  washing  machine,  so  when  father 
sold  out  his  patents  for  what  seemed  a  large  amount  of 
money  we  took  it  as  a  matter  of  course.  All  of  us  had 
had  plenty  to  eat  and  good  enough  clothing  up  to  that 
time.  But  with  the  sale  of  the  patent  came  still  better 
days.  Mother  had  two  black  silk  dresses  and  father, 
wherever  he  got  the  idea,  donned  a  frock  coat  and  plug 
hat.  I  had  seen  a  daguerreotype  of  him  as  a  youth 
with  a  beaver  on,  and  I  know  he  was  familiar  with  the 


36  THE  IKON  HUNTER 

advice  of  Polonius  to  Laertes.  Then  he  went  to  In- 
dianapolis and  entered  the  Indiana  Medical  College, 
where  he  received  a  degree. 

Once  while  father  was  absent  the  household  was 
aroused  in  the  night  by  thunderous  knocks  and  loud 
calls.  Good  old  Charley  Kurtz,  a  neighbor  butcher, 
called  "Old  Charley"  because  he  had  a  son  called 
"  Young  Charley,"  on  his  way  home  from  the  Odd  Fel- 
lows, discovered  that  our  house  was  on  fire.  It  got  a 
good  start  in  the  cellar,  that  was  full  of  shavings  from 
the  washing  machine  models  that  were  kept  for  kin- 
dling. It  gave  me  one  of  the  big  scares  of  my  young  life. 
I  escaped  from  the  family  circle,  and  in  an  obsession 
of  excitement  ran  wildly  about  the  place  in  my  nightie. 
I  was  seven.  There  was  a  big  patch  of  gooseberry 
bushes.  Their  thorns  tore  my  limbs  and  body  when  I 
repeatedly  ran  through  them  as  I  cried  out  frantically 
for  help. 

The  last  child,  William  Douglas,  was  born  in  1867, 
making  ten  in  all  with  eight  living  —  three  girls  and 
seven  boys,  with  two  girls  and  six  boys  living  as  I  write 
these  notes  in  1916. 


CHAPTEE  IV 

POVERTY   THAT   CKAMPS   AND   THEN   EXPANDS   THE   SOUL 

EARLY  in  1868  something  happened  to  our  fam- 
ily fortunes.     I  do  not  know  what  it  was  more 
than  that  my  father  lost  all  of  his  money,  every 
cent.     It  actually  took  the  carpets  off  the  floors  to  pay 
out,  and  there  was  no  hesitation  about  permitting  them 
to  be  taken.     It  was  one  of  those  occurrences  that  are 
continually  happening  and  directly  or  indirectly,  mostly 
the  latter,  exert  a  great  influence  both  upon  individuals 
and  society,  serving  to  cure  pride  and  remind  man  in  a 
decisive  manner  of  his  self-insufficiency. 

All  of  a  sudden  we  were  as  a  family  translated  from 
luxury  to  necessity  —  from  affluence  to  abysmal  pov- 
erty. It  seems  to  me  that  I  must  have  been  taken  out 
of  the  big  house  while  asleep.  I  was  eight  years  old, 
and  must  have  had  sufficient  intellect  to  comprehend 
things  to  some  degree.  Perhaps  my  senses  were  be- 
numbed by  the  shock.  Anyhow  all  I  remember  is  that 
I  seemed  to  go  to  sleep  in  the  big  house  and  to  awaken 
in  a  little  frame  shack,  with  only  two  rooms  and  a 
lean-to.  The  big  parlor  lamp  was  gone  and  so  was  the 
parlor  and  the  base-burner  with  the  red  coals  shining 
through  the  mica.  Each  youngster  had  had  a  horse  to 
ride.  They  were  all  gone.  Two  old  crowbaits,  that 
were  dying  of  old  age  and  were  a  liability,  and  were 
only  kept  in  deference  to  a  creditable  sentiment,  re- 
mained. We  called  them  "  Baldy  "  and  "  Goalie,"  be- 

37 


38  THE  IKON  HUNTER 

cause  one  had  a  white  forehead  and  the  other  was  coal 
black.  The  first  real  fight  I  ever  had  was  with  a  boy 
who  shouted  after  me  "  flip-flop !  "  "  flip-flop !  "  "  flip- 
flop  !  "  as  I  was  urging  old  Baldy  into  a  sort  of  earth- 
quake, bone-racking  trot.  He  was  rather  too  big  for 
me,  and  I  got  a  bloody  nose  and  a  black  eye.  He  got 
enough  so  that  he  did  not  yell  "  flip-flop !  "  at  me  again. 

I  did  not  understand  then  why  my  parents  wished 
to  keep  these  worthless  animals  and  were  so  tender  with 
them.  As  for  myself,  I  was  so  ashamed  of  them  and 
so  angered  at  times  that  I  hate  a  "  flip-flop  "  to  this 
day.  Also  I  am  thankful  to  have  a  feeling  grow  within 
me  that  would  not  permit  me  to  turn  out  a  faithful  old 
horse  or  dog  to  starve  to  death. 

The  new  abode  is  known  in  our  family  history  as 
"  the  little  brown  house."  And  it  was  small.  The  fur- 
niture consisted  of  a  few  wooden  chairs,  a  wooden  table, 
poorly  equipped  beds,  iron  knives  and  forks,  tin  plates, 
cheap  cooking  utensils  and  one  stove,  a  cooking  stove 
with  two  holes  and  a  square  box  oven  on  top  at  the  back, 
supported  by  long,  spider-like  iron  legs.  Food  was 
scarce  too.  We  children  were  put  on  a  corn  meal  diet 
and  not  any  too  much  corn  meal.  Every  Friday  was 
hog  killing  day  at  the  slaughter  house  down  on  the  old 
Plank  Road.  At  such  times  hogs'  hearts  could  be  had 
for  five  cents  a  pound.  Father  and  mother  took  ad- 
vantage of  that  and  as  a  consequence  we  had  hogs'  heart 
meat  once  a  week  and  no  meat  at  all  between  times.  I 
noticed  a  change  in  everything.  The  big  dogs  were 
gone.  Only  we  had  kept  Pinkie,  a  little  black  and  tan 
feist  with  a  hole  in  her  throat,  cut  by  a  ground  hog 
she  had  crawled  after  into  a  den. 

Father  acted  strangely.  He  was  depressed.  I  did 
not  know  that  then.  He  hung  out  his  doctor  sign  and 


POVERTY  THAT  CRAMPS  39 

one  for  mother,  too.  Also  he  would  parade  in  front  of 
the  house  with  his  long  coat,  gold-headed  cane  and  silk 
hat,  which  he  had  managed  somehow  to  hang  onto. 
After  thus  showing  himself  he  would  return  to  the 
house,  put  on  cotton  overalls  and  waist,  and  departing 
by  the  rear  and  through  the  alley  go  to  a  remote  part  of 
town  and  work  as  a  carpenter  —  a  trade  he  had  well 
learned  as  a  boy.  He  was  not  strong.  Soon  he  grew 
ill  and  was  very  sick.  He  could  not  eat.  Delicacies 
were  tried. 

One  day  I  smelled  what  to  a  hungry  boy  was  about  the 
sweetest  odor  I  could  remember.  It  came  from  the 
cook  stove  where  five  cents'  worth  of  prunes  were  sim- 
mering in  a  tin  cup.  They  were  for  father  and  his  life 
might  have  depended  upon  them  for  all  I  knew.  That 
did  not  shield  me  from  temptation.  I  made  up  my 
mind  to  steal  those  prunes  and  eat  them  and  then  run 
away  to  Texas.  My  mother  must  have  suspected  me  in 
that  divine  way  that  mothers  have.  Anyhow  she 
watched  me  and  kept  such  a  vigil  over  the  prunes  that 
I  was  foiled. 

That  was  my  first  tangible  temptation,  and  there 
flowed  from  it  my  first  crystallized  ambition.  I  made 
up  my  mind  then  and  there  that  when  I  became  a  man 
I  would  not  stop  in  my  efforts  until  I  had  all  the  prunes 
I  wished  for,  even  if  I  had  to  be  a  pirate. 

Sometimes  all  of  us  were  hungry  and  we  were  ill- 
clad  but  cleanly.  Old  clothing  was  transformed  dex- 
terously and  handed  down  from  child  to  child. 

We  were  sent  to  school.  Other  children  made  fun  of 
us  because  we  were  poorly  garbed.  This  made  me  so 
sensitive  and  wounded  me  to  such  an  extent  that  I 
would  not  look  at  other  children.  Fatty  Tyner,  Nigger 
Bill  and  a  German  boy  named  Theodore  Mersch,  called 


40  THE  IKON  HUNTER 

by  the  urchins  "  Tater  Mash,"  as  being  near  the  Ger- 
man pronunciation,  were  particularly  kind  to  me. 
They  would  back  me  in  my  fights  and  permitted  me  to 
lead  them  in  expeditions  for  nuts,  berries,  paw  paws, 
fishing,  and  against  the  "  Micks  "  of  the  Plank  Road. 

Always  there  seemed  to  be  war  among  the  boys  of 
LaFayette.  If  some  of  us  went  to  the  "  old  sycamore  " 
to  swim  in  the  Wabash  our  enemies  were  nearly  certain 
to  come  and  muss  our  clothes,  tie  them  in  wet  knots, 
and  as  we  dragged  at  them  with  our  teeth  they  would 
deride  us  with  "  Chawed  beef  and  roasted  mutton ! 
Chawed  beef  and  roasted  mutton !  " 

We  learned  to  keep  a  standing  guard  and  pickets. 
If  the  Micks  outnumbered  us  we  would  run.  If  there 
was  a  fair  chance  we  stood  our  ground  and  fought,  with 
honors  about  even  from  day  to  day. 

I  learned  to  swim  at  the  "  wide  water,"  an  impound- 
ing reservoir  used  to  adjust  the  canal  levels.  It  looked 
big  to  me  as  a  boy  and  it  was  over  a  man's  head  in 
depth.  A  bigger  crowd  than  ours  chased  us  away  from 
the  "  old  sycamore  "  swimming  hole.  We  grabbed  our 
clothing  and  ran  across  the  Wabash  bottoms  to  the  wide 
water.  I  remember  that  I  arrived  bleeding  and  sting- 
ing from  the  smarting  wounds  of  thorns  and  sandburrs. 
Although  I  could  not  swim  or  had  not  swum  before  I 
was  on  fire.  I  rushed  down  the  steep,  artificial  bank 
into  the  wide  water  where  it  was  about  ten  feet  in 
depth.  I  went  to  the  bottom.  When  I  came  up  I 
struck  out  just,  as  naturally  as  though  I  was  a  good 
swimmer,  not  dog  fashion,  but  a  full  sweeping  stroke. 
It  was  not  long  before  I  developed  into  a  good  swimmer. 

One  day  Nigger  Bill  showed  me  how  to  cure  warts. 
He  was  the  son  of  Reverend  Maveety,  who  preached  on 
Sunday  and  wielded  a  whitewash  brush  week  days. 


POVERTY  THAT  CRAMPS  41 

His  mother  knew  how  to  "  Kunjer  "  he  said  and  was 
sister  of  a  hoodoo  (voo-doo)  queen.  I  was  deeply  im- 
pressed and  told  my  mother.  She  ordered  me  to  keep 
away  from  the  negro  boy  and  told  me  the  rules  he  gave 
me  were  foolish. 

I  still  had  faith  in  Nigger  Bill.  A  block  from  our 
house  lived  the  Purnells.  They  had  a  nice  little  girl 
named  Laura,  about  my  age.  She  had  more  warts  on 
her  hands  than  a  Texan  toad  and  was  quite  proud  of 
them.  I  got  her  to  let  me  try  to  take  off  just  one  of 
them,  and  because  we  were  good  friends  she  consented. 

Nigger  Bill  had  told  me  to  take  a  piece  of  blue 
thread,  tie  it  in  a  hard  knot  over  the  wart  and  then  slip 
it  off  and  bury  it,  repeating  as  I  did  so, 

u  TToblin,  goblin,  go  an'  snort, 
Rot  in  the  groun'  an'  kill  a  wart." 

As  the  thread  rotted  the  wart  would  rot  and  come 
off.  Mystery  of  mysteries,  but  to  me  perfectly  natural 
then,  Laura  PurnelFs  big  wart  on  her  left  hand,  that 
I  had  tied  the  blue  thread  over,  became  inflamed,  and 
the  swelling  communicated  to  the  entire  hand  and  arm. 
Laura  was  in  great  pain,  and  some  thought  she  might 
die.  I  was  frightened  to  death.  After  a  really  se- 
vere siege  she  recovered,  minus  the  wart.  Then  I  went 
and  dug  for  the  thread  to  see  if  it  had  rotted.  Either 
I  dug  in  the  wrong  place  or  it  had  disintegrated,  for  I 
could  not  find  it.  I  was  afraid  to  be  a  wart  doctor 
because  somebody  might  die  before  the  wart  came  off. 
Just  what  happened  I  do  not  know  unless  I  slightly  cut 
or  irritated  the  wart  and  it  was  infected  by  the  thread. 
Warts  are  not  nice  to  have  but  they  are  preferable  to 
Nigger  Bill's  cure,  in  which  there  is  the  philosophy  of 
the  ages. 


42  THE  IKON  HOTTTEE 

To  help  out  I  became  a  rag  picker,  which  included 
gathering  old  iron  as  well.  I  got  to  know  the  alleys  of 
the  town  better  than  the  streets.  Also  I  carried  a  news- 
paper route  and  sold  papers.  It  brought  me  into  con- 
tact with  all  phases  and  strata  of  life,  and  I  early  came 
to  know,  I  do  not  know  how  I  knew  but  I  did,  that  God 
takes  especial  care  of  boys  and  girls  or  there  wouldn't 
be  one  on  earth  uncontaminated.  Down  in  the  Wabash 
bottoms  I  used  to  see  men  and  women  derelicts.  In  the 
summer  they  infested  the  now  dry  flood  lands.  I  had 
as  much  abhorrence  of  them  as  of  a  snake.  Nobody  told 
me  about  them  or  the  great  dangers  of  boyhood.  I  just 
knew  instinctively,  and  I  think  other  boys  do. 

Once  the  circulator  of  William  S.  Lingle's  Daily 
Courier  asked  me  to  carry  papers  in  a  part  of  the  town 
where  the  carrier  was  always  being  licked  and  his  papers 
destroyed.  He  said  I  would  have  to  fight  and  that 
maybe  as  many  as  twenty  boys  would  attack  me  at  once. 
I  couldn't  whip  twenty  boys  without  preparedness,  so 
I  bought  a  second-hand,  twenty-two  caliber,  seven-shot 
revolver. 

It  was  autumn.  The  coming  January  I  would  be 
eleven  years  old.  Hard  knocks  and  life  in  the  alleys 
were  developing  me  fast.  I  took  the  papers  and  started 
out  really  hoping  to  get  a  chance  to  shoot  a  few  boys 
just  to  test  the  killing  power  of  my  gun.  I  had  al- 
ready tried  it  on  a  cow  out  in  the  commons,  and  when 
she  walked  away  seemingly  unconcerned  I  was  ready 
to  take  the  revolver  back  to  the  second-hand  man.  But 
I  thought  I  might  have  better  luck  shooting  boys.  At 
the  corner  of  Thirteenth  and  Union  streets  a  colored 
boy,  possibly  a  little  larger  than  I,  came  up  to  me  in  a 
bantering  way  and  grabbed  at  my  papers.  I  forgot  my 
revolver  and  laid  down  my  sack  and  waded  into  the 


POVERTY  THAT  CRAMPS  43 

Negro.  We  were  rolling  around  on  the  ground  and  I 
was  getting  a  little  the  best  of  him  I  thought,  until  he 
got  my  left  fore  arm  between  his  sharklike  teeth.  That 
made  me  desperate  and  caused  me  somehow  to  remember 
the  gun  in  my  pocket.  I  got  it  out  and  when  the  Negro 
boy  saw  it  he  yelled  "  murder  "  and  "  help  "  and  gave 
up. 

Then  boys  began  to  appear  from  everywhere,  but 
mostly  from  behind  an  old  barn  near  by  and  from  under 
a  street  bridge  over  an  open  surface  sewer  called  Pearl 
River.  When  I  saw  them  I  ran  for  my  papers  and 
bolted.  The  yelling  crowd  of  boys  pursued  me.  I 
thought  there  must  be  a  hundred.  Some  were  larger 
than  I.  As  I  was  ascending  to  the  sidewalk  after  cross- 
ing that  Pearl  River,  a  bigger  boy  struck  me  over  the 
head  with  a  broken  shinny  stick.  Down  I  went.  I  had 
already  been  hit  several  times  by  rocks  and  clubs  but  I 
was  not  hurt.  Now  was  the  time  to  use  the  revolver. 
I  pulled  it  out  and  shot  all  seven  shots  slam  into  that 
crowd.  Really  I  expected  to  kill  seven  boys  at  least  and 
maybe  more.  There  was  a  scattering  in  all  directions 
and  it  wasn't  long  before  a  policeman  had  me.  I  don't 
know  where  he  came  from.  There  weren't  many  in  La- 
Fayette  those  days. 

He  took  my  gun  and  instead  of  taking  me  to  the 
calaboose,  as  we  called  the  local  lockup,  he  took  me 
home.  I  had  not  lost  many  papers.  As  soon  as  the 
officer  turned  me  loose  I  got  an  older  brother  to  go  with 
me  and  we  finished  the  paper  delivery  that  night.  I 
hadn't  hit  a  boy.  Just  like  shooting  into  a  flock  of  any- 
thing without  picking  your  bird.  From  that  day  I 
carried  that  route  unmolested.  I  wouldn't  advise  boys 
to  follow  my  example,  even  though  in  what  I  did  I  was 
perfectly  innocent  of  intentional  wrong  doing. 


44  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

As  I  grew  stronger  I  did  all  kinds  of  work.  It  seems 
to  me  now  that  the  hardest  work  of  my  youth  was  cut- 
ting and  shocking  green  corn.  When  I  was  thirteen, 
my  brother  Steve  and  I  took  a  contract  cutting  corn  and 
shocking  it  for  ten  cents  a  shock  every  fourteen  rows 
and  fourteen  hills  of  corn.  Those  who  know  Indiana 
corn  along  the  Wabash  will  think  of  each  stalk  as  almost 
a  tree.  I  wielded  the  corn  cutter  and  Steve  carried  the 
big  heavy  bundles  and  shocked  them.  He  was  older 
by  eight  years  arid  was  equal  to  the  work. 

When  I  would  be  awakened  in  the  morning  I  would 
ache  from  head  to  toe  and  would  be  so  stiff  and  sore  I 
could  have  cried  out  with  pain  when  I  essayed  to  move. 
And  I  was  too  young  to  harden  and  get  used  to  it. 

Also  I  learned  to  cradle,  rake,  bind,  mow,  stack  hay 
and  grain,  load  hay,  rive  clapboards,  split  rails  and 
chop  cord  wood.  I  still  enjoy  swinging  an  ax  just  as  I 
liked  it  best  of  all  as  a  boy.  Many  hardships  have  been 
my  lot  by  land  and  sea,  if  one  calls  enjoyable,  exacting 
adventures  hardships,  but  not  one  caused  me  as  much 
suffering  as  corn  cutting  in  the  Indiana  maize  forest. 

I  went  to  Sunday  school.  My  mother  was  a  Metho- 
dist and  my  father  a  Wesleyan,  between  which  denomi- 
nations there  is  little  difference.  At  Christmas  time 
I  managed  to  get  to  six  Sunday  schools.  It  required 
no  end  of  scheming,  but  I  really  received  gifts  one 
Christmas  from  six  different  trees.  It  was  not  right  I 
now  know  but  I  thought  no  wrong  of  it  then.  In  fact, 
I  thought  a  boy  who  went  to  only  one  Sunday  school 
at  Christmas  time  was  downright  shiftless. 

Two  things  I  best  remember  that  I  heard  in  church 
while  a  boy.  One  was  the  temperance  examples  told  by 
Francis  Murphy.  The  other  is  a  picture  of  a  devout 
Sunday  school  superintendent  of  the  Ninth  Street  M.  E. 


POVEKTY  THAT  CRAMPS  45 

Church  of  LaFayette,  named  J.  Q.  A.  Perrin,  as  I  slyly 
glanced  at  him  while  he  repeated  the  childhood  prayer : 

Now  I  lay  me  down  to  sleep, 
I  pray  the  Lord  my  soul  to  keep, 

And  if  I  die  before  I  wake, 
I  pray  the  Lord  my  soul  to  take. 

This  I  ask  for  Jesus'  sake. 

The  above  is  not  the  way  Billy  Sunday  words  and  spells 
it  but  it  is  the  way  Mr.  Perrin  recited  it,  and  it  is  the 
way  I  have  repeated  it  every  night  of  my  life  since  I 
was  nine,  with  the  alteration  since  I  have  had  a  wife  and 
children  to  "  our  "  instead  of  "  my."  It  is  a  selfish 
little  prayer  but  one  does  not  have  to  stop  with  it. 

The  pangs  of  poverty  and  attendant  humiliation 
ground  into  me  more  and  more.  I  did  not  have  as  good 
clothing  as  had  the  other  boys  that  I  thought  I  would 
like  to  consort  with,  and  many  fisticuffs  grew  out  of  the 
scorn  and  derision  of  those  who  assumed  to  look  down 
upon  me.  I  did  not  win  all  these  by  any  means,  but  all 
of  them  gave  me  a  kind  of  confidence  in  myself.  I  got 
hold  of  several  dime  novels  and  read  also  the  Jack 
Harkaway  adventures,  and  a  lot  of  stuff  about  Jesse 
James  and  his  brother  Frank,  who  were  just  beginning 
to  limn  on  the  lurid  horizon  of  boys'  brains.  I  also 
read  the  more  wholesome  "  Ashore  and  Afloat "  books 
by  William  Taylor  Adams,  who  signed  himself  Oliver 
Optic.  History  began  to  unfold  to  me  interesting  pages, 
and  I  found  ornithology,  entomology,  botany  and  astron- 
omy fascinating.  Not  that  I  went  very  far  with  any 
of  them;  only  I  liked  them  better  than  mathematics. 
Zoological  and  biological  things  were  entertainment  and 
mathematics  were  study.  About  the  very  first  book  I 
read  was  a  brave  little  tome  called  "  Little  Prudy's 


46  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

Captain  Horace/7  by  Sophie  May,  one  of  the  Little 
Prudy  series  of  delightful  books  for  children.  I  was 
nine  years  of  age  when  I  got  it  off  a  Baptist  Sunday 
school  Christmas  tree. 

The  year  before  three  impressive  little  books  fell  into 
my  hands.  They  were  the  "  Burial  of  the  Firstborn/7 
by  Joseph  Alden ;  "  The  Little  Brown  Jug/7  by  Mrs. 
C.  M.  Edwards,  and  "  Not  a  Minute  to  Spare/7  by  S.  C. 
I  read  all  these  before  I  was  nine.  Really  I  seemed  to 
partially  understand  in  "  Not  a  Minute  to  Spare  "  Tup- 
per7s  line  — "  now  is  the  constant  syllable  ticking  from 
the  clock  of  Time.77 

At  least  forever  after  the  tick-tocks  said  to  me, 
"  Never  return,  never  return  77 ! 

So  early  does  the  mind  of  the  average  child  begin  to 
function.  In  fact,  I  read  just  about  everything  I  could 
lay  my  hands  on,  including  all  the  doctor  books  I  could 
find  around  the  house. 

At  an  early  age,  too  early,  I  had  read  Gray7s  "  Anat- 
omy/7 Dalton7s  physiology,  Thomas  on  "  Diseases  of 
Women  and  Children/7  pages  of  Dunglison7s  medical 
dictionary,  Gully's  and  also  Shew7s  hydropathy. 

Fine  reading  for  a  youth  of  ten  to  twelve!  and  it 
made  me  knowing  beyond  my  years.  I  would  gather  a 
crowd  of  boys  on  the  curbstone  on  dark  nights  and  be- 
fore a  Rembrandt  fire  in  the  gutter,  with  its  vivid  chiar- 
oscuro, I  would  tell  them  the  secrets  of  these  doctor 
books  in  low  tones. 

The  greatest  horror  of  impression  would  be  made  by 
the  descriptions  of  awful  diseases  that  befel  men  and 
women  who  were  not  good. 

Nearly  all  of  us  had  read  "  Robinson  Crusoe  "  and 
"  Swiss  Family  Robinson.77 

We  would  tell  riddles  and  ghost  stories  also  until  all 


POVERTY  THAT  CHAMPS  47 

of  us  were  of  a  shiver.  Then  there  were  famous  nights 
when  we  played  u  Blank  Lie  Low  "  and  hunted  coon 
and  'possums,  and,  best  of  all,  camping  on  the  banks 
of  the  Wabash  all  night  keeping  up  a  fire  big  enough 
for  a  lion  country,  while  those  of  us  who  were  bigger 
baited  and  ran  "  trot "  lines.  We  used  liver  for  bait 
and  sometimes  we  had  a  thousand  hooks  out. 

They  were  fine  fish,  those  channel  cats  (siluridae), 
but  they  would  sort  of  gurgle  and  squawk  when  we  slit 
them  just  through  the  skin  behind  their  horns,  and 
then  holding  them  between  the  fingers  of  the  left  hand 
would  pull  off  the  skin  with  pincers  in  the  right  hand. 

The  niggers  used  to  say  that  the  catfish  were  trying  to 
tell  what  they  would  do  to  us  when  they  were  men  and 
we  were  catfish,  and  their  strange  metempsychosis  folk 
lore  made  a  deep  impression. 

We  boys  thought  we  could  see  the  catfish  squirm,  like 
eels  and  frog  meat  do  when  first  put  into  a  hot  frying 
pan.  This  the  niggers  said  was  nothing  to  the  way  bad 
boys  would  squirm  in  hell. 

All  through  the  dimmest  social  fabric  there  seemed 
to  run  the  certainty  that  good  is  rewarded  and  bad  is 
punished,  which  must  have  been  one  way  the  Creator 
has  of  manifesting  a  fundamental  truth. 

Boys  were  wild  and  adventurous  but  they  were  not 
nasty  or  impure,  and  if  there  was  a  degenerate  unfor- 
tunate he  soon  come  to  be  marked  and  shunned. 

I  wish  to  believe  that  that  is  the  way  of  boys  to-day. 


CHAPTEK  V 

WILD   BOYHOOD    DREAMS    FILL    MY    MIND    AND   I    ACT 
UPON    THEM 

MY  parents  would  teach  us  American  history 
traditionally  and  they  were  hoth  well  informed. 
As  my  father  loved  or  hated  so  did  I  come  to 
do.  He  could  not,  without  rage,  think  of  Simon  Girty, 
who,  as  an  English  agent  in  Canada,  had  aroused  the 
border  Indians,  and  was  charged  with  paying  them  fifty 
cents  for  the  scalp  of  an  American  white  woman  and 
seventy-five  cents  to  a  dollar  for  the  scalp  of  a  man,  but 
only  twenty-five  cents  for  a  child  or  a  gray-haired  scalp. 
Some  of  our  relatives  had  met  this  fate  and  it  has  left 
a  bitterness  that  even  I  have  to  struggle  against  to  this 
day. 

Next  to  the  bloody  Girty  my  father  hated  Aaron  Burr 
and  so  did  I.  He  was  wont  to  say  that  Jeff  Davis  was 
a  gentleman  beside  Burr  and  his  tool  Blennerhassett, 
and  that  Benedict  Arnold  had  not  been  worse.  His 
condemnation  of  Henry  Clay  was  because  Clay  had  been 
Burr's  attorney.  Father  was  intolerant  of  anybody  who 
would  hire  out  his  talents  to  criminals.  He  loved  Alex- 
ander Hamilton  as  the  greatest  American,  and  always 
put  Washington  as  secondary  to  Hamilton.  To  his 
mind  Lee  and  Stonewall  Jackson  and  Albert  Sydney 
Johnston  were  misguided  good  men,  and  of  the  three 
he  placed  Albert  Sydney  Johnston  first.  He  told  me 
stories  of  Daniel  Boone,  Simon  Kenton  and  Davy  Crock- 

48 


WILD  BOYHOOD  DREAMS  49 

ett  and  their  contemporaries  until  I  forthwith  got  an 
old  bored-out  army  musket  and  hid  it  under  the  shed, 
as  against  the  time  when  I  would  become  an  Indian 
fighter.  Soon  I  was  able  to  grind  down  a  corncutter 
blade  into  the  most  savage-looking  bowie  knife  I  have 
ever  seen. 

These  preparations  were  soon  followed  by  a  decision 
to  run  away,  which  was  promptly  acted  upon.  My  first 
adventure  of  this  kind  was  when  I  was  ten  years  of  age. 
With  an  older  boy  named  John  Godfrey,  son  of  a  bel- 
ligerent Methodist  preacher  named  Samuel  Godfrey, 
the  best  silver  bass  fisherman  on  the  Wabash  "  riffles," 
I  started  out.  We  got  nearly  fifty  miles  away  before 
our  parents  caught  us. 

Without  discouragement  I  kept  at  running  away  two 
or  three  times  a  year  until  I  succeeded.  Once  I  got 
clear  away  on  a  raft  and  with  the  two  other  boys  floated 
down  the  Wabash  to  the  Ohio  and  quite  a  distance 
into  the  Mississippi.  We  were  gone  several  months  and 
had  enough  adventure  to  fill  a  book. 

My  longest  runaway  absence  was  when  I  went  into 
the  wild  Michigan  lumber  woods  in  Newaygo  County 
near  the  present  village  of  Hungerford.  I  spent  a  win- 
ter in  the  camps  as  a  cookee  and  chore  boy.  In  the 
spring  I  worked  in  a  saw  mill  and  shingle  mill.  That 
winter  I  got  a  terrible  thrashing.  There  was  a  boast- 
ful fellow  in  camp  named  Jason  Grimsby.  No  one 
knew  whether  he  would  fight,  but  from  his  tell  he  could 
lick  his  weight  in  wild  cats  and  then  some. 

Some  of  the  woodsmen  had  families  in  near  about 
shacks  and  there  were  several  boys  of  about  my  age. 
We  made  up  our  minds  that  Jason  was  a  coward.  Our 
plan  to  try  him  out  was  to  waylay  him  at  night  and 
while  not  hurting  him,  we  were  to  leap  on  him  and  tou- 


50  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

sle  him  about  pretty  lively.  Good  idea,  but  it  didn't 
work,  and  to  this  day  we  have  no  correct  measure  of 
Jason  although  he  got  one  of  me. 

I  was  a  sort  of  leader.  Perhaps  I  was  the  biggest 
boy.  Anyhow  Jason  came  beating  it  along  a  trail 
swinging  a  candle  lantern  and  whistling.  I  made  a 
jump  for  him.  There  were  five  of  us  boys,  two  on  one 
side  of  the  trail  and  three  on  the  other. 

All  I  know  is  that  every  one  of  them  ran  away  and 
Jason  mopped  up  the  earth  with  me.  The  lantern  went 
out  at  once  and  it  took  Jason  some  time  in  the  dark  to 
tell  when  he  had  pounded  me  enough.  I  tried  to  accuse 
him  of  attacking  me,  but  while  my  attitude  confused 
him  a  little,  it  did  no  good.  From  that  time  to  this 
I  have  depended  more  upon  myself  than  others  and  have 
more  carefully  considered  undertakings. 

I  went  back  to  Indiana  with  quite  a  sum  of  money 
saved  up,  amounting  to  near  one  hundred  dollars.  I 
had  walked  most  of  the  way  to  Michigan,  and  I  earned 
good  wages  in  savings  by  walking  the  most  of  the  way 
back,  over  two  hundred  miles. 

At  thirteen  I  was  in  the  LaFayette  high  school  de- 
spite the  fact  that  my  runaway  trips  had  broken  into  my 
schooling.  I  cannot  remember  that  I  was  more  than  an 
ordinary  student. 

When  I  was  fourteen  I  was  admitted  to  Purdue  Uni- 
versity at  its  opening.  There  was  not  much  organiza- 
tion or  grading  or  I  surely  could  not  have  been  ad- 
mitted. The  institution  had  been  endowed  by  John 
Purdue  under  certain  conditions,  one  of  which  was,  I 
believe,  that  it  must  be  open  for  students  by  a  certain 
time.  In  order  to  save  itself  the  university  was  opened 
hurriedly  and  perhaps  without  much  previous  prepara- 
tion. I  spent  three  years  at  Purdue.  They  were  years 


WILD  BOYHOOD  DREAMS  51 

of  mingled  happiness  and  bitterness.  I  seemed  to  get 
along  with  my  work  all  right  but,  struggle  as  1  did,  I 
never  seemed  to  have  enough  clothing  to  prevent  richer 
boys  from  making  fun  of  me.  Shortridge  was  presi- 
dent, and  before  I  left  he  was  succeeded  by  White,  a 
strong  man.  The  university  was  coeducational  from 
the  beginning  and  it  grew  rapidly. 

The  boy  that  I  most  disliked  in  school  was  Jim  Reidy, 
son  of  a  banker  and  rich.  He  was  bigger  and  older 
than  I,  quite  a  flashy  fellow,  whose  sole  accomplishment 
was  to  write  a  good  hand.  That  fellow  goaded  me  to 
desperation.  He  would  call  attention  in  a  loud  voice 
to  the  fact  that  I  wore  no  undergarments  and  often  no 
socks,  and  that  my  shoes  were  cowhide. 

He  was  a  handsome  young  animal,  and  T  couldn't  lick 
him  as  I  found  out.  Secretly  I  half  admired  him,  al- 
together envied  him  and  often  came  near  to  a  deter- 
mination to  murder  him.  Reidy  married  a  charming 
co-ed  and  became  a  partner  in  his  father's  banking  busi- 
ness. They  expanded  into  a  string  of  banks.  A  panic 
struck  them;  there  were  irregularities  and  Jim  was 
sent  to  the  penitentiary.  I  did  not  learn  of  this  for  a 
long  time.  I  was  governor  of  Michigan  when  I  did  find 
it  out  and  I  was  not  only  sorry  for  Reidy  but  at  once 
endeavored  to  do  what  I  could  for  him. 

One  of  my  best  friends  at  Purdue  was  Orth  Stein, 
son  of  Judge  Stein,  a  prominent  lawyer  and  worthy 
citizen  of  LaFayette.  Orth  was  tall,  amomic  and  some- 
what effeminate.  He  was  such  a  good  boy  that  mothers 
commonly  pointed  him  out  to  their  sons  as  a  model. 
And  he  had  a  good,  double-barreled  shotgun  that  he 
would  loan.  That  endeared  him  to  rne  more  than  any- 
thing else,  I  think.  You  cannot  always  tell  about  a 
good  boy.  Before  they  hung  Orth  he  murdered  several 


52  THE  IKON  HUNTER 

people,  including  a  woman.  It  was  the  whiskey  and 
prostitution  route. 

Harvey  W.  Wiley,  foremost  American  food  expert, 
was  then  professor  of  chemistry  at  Purdue.  He  also 
drilled  the  college  cadets  and  was  a  pitcher  in  the  base- 
hall  team.  It  was  permitted  at  this  time  to  give  the 
ball  a  kind  of  underhand  throw.  Dr.  Wiley's  fame  was 
made  one  day  when  he  knocked  a  cigar  down  the  throat 
of  Johnny  Harper,  the  catcher.  Baseball  nowadays 
with  an  unmasked,  unprotected  catcher  behind  the  bat 
with  a  cigar  in  his  mouth  would  be  the  quintessence  of 
comedy. 

There  was  hazing  of  a  rough  kind,  such  as  putting  a 
freshman  on  a  straw  stack  in  the  night  and  setting  it 
on  fire  so  that  he  had  to  jump  through  the  flames.  An- 
other stunt  was  to  make  the  candidate  walk  a  plank 
blindfolded  into  a  deep  hole  in  the  Wabash.  Some- 
times we  tied  his  hands  behind  his  back.  The  victim 
was  always  rescued  but  often  he  was  first  nearly 
drowned.  Boys  were  not  much  good  who  did  not  go  in 
for  these  things  and  it  is  a  fact  that  the  roughest  and 
wildest  boys  have  done  the  most  in  life. 

They  were  always  fair  and  square,  were  not  bullies 
and  adhered  to  certain  unwritten  laws  of  young  buck 
chivalry.  Indiana  was  full  of  such  youths,  and  I  hope 
the  country  is  still  developing  them.  All  of  the  college 
pranks  were  played,  and  the  Greek  letter  fraternities 
had  quite  a  vogue.  It  was  just  before  I  left  Purdue 
that  President  White  started  his  fight  against  them, 
singling  out  the  Sigma  Chi  as  the  one  to  make  the  test 
upon.  His  defeat  disappointed  him  and  checkered  a 
life  of  great  usefulness. 

Professor  Hussey  taught  zoology.  He  asked  for 
specimens.  It  took  a  great  effort  on  my  part  to  gather 


WILD  BOYHOOD  DREAMS  53 

all  the  bones  of  a  borse  skeleton  in  the  river  bottoms 
and  pile  them  in  the  class  room.  The  specimen  was 
too  new  and  really  I  can  smell  it  yet.  Professor  Hussey 
was  fine  usually  but  he  lost  his  temper.  I  confessed  to 
the  act.  He  came  near  to  where  I  sat  and  glowering 
down  upon  me  growled : 

"  Osborn,  do  you  know  how  near  a  fool  you  are  ?  "  I 
replied,  "  Two  feet." 

It  was  not  an  original  retort,  I  am  certain,  but  it 
nearly  ran  me  out  of  college.  Altogether  an  act  upon 
my  part  to  be  condemned,  the  psychology  of  it  was  that 
its  very  boldness  gave  me  greater  confidence  in  myself, 
a  trait  I  was  deficient  in  to  the  extent  that  I  was  bash- 
ful, sensitive  and  terribly  ill  at  ease  in  company. 

One  night  at  the  end  of  my  third  year,  I  attended  a 
commencement  reception  at  President  White's  house. 
Several  of  the  young  men  actually  wore  evening  dress 
suits.  I  had  never  seen  one  before  and  the  mental 
effect  they  had  on  me  was  as  strange  as  it  was  ludicrous. 
All  along  I  had  been  struggling  to  get  far  enough  into 
style  to  wear  an  undershirt,  and  here  were  these  claw 
hammer  coats.  The  case  was  hopeless;  the  odds  were 
too  terrible  to  struggle  against.  Then  and  there  I 
vowed  to  leave  school  for  good,  and  I  did.  I  was  seven- 
teen. 

My  father  no  longer  worked  at  carpentering.  The 
unusual  medical  skill  of  both  my  parents  insured  them 
from  being  in  poverty  very  long.  So  far  on  the  up- 
grade had  they  gone  that  father  was  able  to  buy  a  tract 
of  forty-seven  acres  of  land  about  three  miles  from  La- 
Fayette.  It  was  a  network  of  swampy  pond  holes,  with 
a  planched  growth  of  sassafras,  hazel,  ash,  water  elm 
and  briars  with  numerous  enough  rattlesnakes,  black 
snakes  and  blue  racers.  My  brothers  and  I  were  given 


54  THE  IRON  HUN  TEE 

the  job  of  clearing  that  land.  No  work  was  better  for 
us.  We  straightened  a  sluggish  creek  and  laid  tile  in 
every  direction.  The  timber  was  cut  into  cordwood  and 
rails,  with  now  and  then  a  linn  or  an  oak  sawlog. 

Working  at  many  things  during  my  hungry  youth  I 
had  learned  to  set  type,  put  a  job  on  a  press,  make 
rollers,  pull  a  Washington  and  turn  the  old  man-power 
cylinders.  Also  I  had  crudely  written  some  for  the 
papers  and  really  began  to  gather  news  items  at  ten. 
But  I  had  not  formed  a  definite  desire  to  do  newspaper 
work.  Only  it  was  true  of  me  that  accidentally  or 
otherwise  I  had  done  more  work  around  newspaper 
outfits,  and  had  learned  more  about  them  than  about 
anything  else. 

An  event  occurred  before  I  was  eighteen  that  caused 
me  to  leave  Indiana  in  deep  disgust,  mostly  with  my- 
self. Quite  a  notorious  bully  named  Ed  Rawles,  a 
young  fighting  widower,  was  the  high  cockalorum,  as 
he  claimed,  of  the  Hebron  district,  about  seven  miles 
from  LaFayette.  If  he  didn't  like  a  young  fellow  he 
would  scare  him  away  by  bluffing  or  licking  him.  He 
tabooed  me  and  sent  me  word  not  to  come  again  into  his 
neighborhood  under  penalty  of  a  thrashing  at  his  hands. 
My  older  brother  told  me  not  to  go.  He  said  Rawles 
would  maul  me  all  to  pieces,  and  I  really  thought  he 
would  myself,  but  I  wasn't  going  to  be  scared  out.  The 
very  next  time  there  were  any  doings  at  Hebron  church, 
I  went.  Rawles  was  in  a  seat  in  front  of  me.  It  was 
in  the  evening.  He  leaned  over  and  called  me  a  vile 
name  in  a  loud  whisper  and  said  he  was  going  to  "  lick 
the  stuffin'  out  of  me  "  after  church.  I  didn't  wait 
until  after  church,  but  waded  into  Mr.  Rawles  then 
and  there.  I  struck  him  in  the  face,  and  before  he 


WILD  BOYHOOD  DREAMS  55 

could  recover  from  the  surprise  and  the  blow,  I  climbed 
over  the  seat  and  gattied  him.  We  had  a  fine  fight. 
He  would  jam  in  between  the  seats.  I  was  thinner  and 
had  him  at  a  disadvantage.  Naturally  the  church  was 
in  an  uproar  in  a  moment.  Women  and  girls  screamed, 
but  there  weren't  many  fainting  Hoosier  women  those 
days. 

Men  got  to  us  and  pulled  us  out  into  the  aisle.  Then 
it  seemed  to  me  the  tide  of  battle  turned.  I  had  been 
having  all  the  best  of  the  mix-up  among  the  seats.  Now 
a  half  dozen  were  holding  me  and  it  seemed  to  me  that 
no  one  was  holding  Rawles.  He  pounded  away  at  me 
and  my  arms  were  pinioned.  When  they  thought  I  had 
enough,  for  I  was  blind  and  delirious  with  fighting  rage, 
they  faced  me  about  and  threw  me  out  of  church. 

I  ran  as  fast  as  I  could  go  to  "  Doc  "  Coleman's,  the 
nearest  farmer  I  knew,  and  tried  to  borrow  his  shotgun 
in  order  to  go  back  and  get  even.  Of  course  he  refused 
it. 

Next  day  I  was  arrested.  It  seems  that  I  was  not 
only  guilty  of  assault  and  battery  but  of  church  dese- 
cration, a  much  worse  crime.  Colonel  Dick  DeHart,  a 
famous  soldier  and  criminal  lawyer  and  afterwards  an 
able  judge  for  years,  defended  me  without  charge  and 
I  was  acquitted. 

But  from  that  moment  I  was  a  marked  youth.  Par- 
ents forbade  their  daughters  to  speak  to  me  and  ordered 
their  sons  to  shun  me.  I  was  the  most  depraved  youth 
in  Indiana  according  to  their  ideas.  It  did  not  matter 
what  reputation  Rawles  had,  nor  did  it  count  that  I 
ended  his  days  as  a  bully.  I  had  but  one  destiny  and 
that  included  both  penitentiary  and  hanging.  In  fact, 
so  persistent  was  the  opinion  that  thirty-five  years  later, 


56  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

when  I  had  gone  to  Indiana  as  a  guest  of  that  State  as 
Governor  of  Michigan,  a  fine  old  gentleman  named 
Kantz,  of  German  extraction,  exclaimed: 

"  1st  dis  der  real  Chase  Osborn  ?  Vat,  ain't  you 
hung  yet?" 

The  girls  and  boys  did  not  all  taboo  me  by  any  means 
but  my  social  relations  were,  to  say  the  least,  clandes- 
tine, so  I  packed  my  "  turkey." 

While  on  the  farm  engaged  in  the  work  of  clearing 
I  had  time  to  read,  to  go  to  the  country  parties  and 
spelling  schools  and  debates,  in  all  of  which  I  seemed  to 
take  an  average  part.  Opportunities  came  to  go  har- 
vesting with  better  wages  and  to  follow  the  threshing 
machine  that  did  the  work  for  many  farmers.  There 
was  much  interchange  and  exchange  of  work.  At 
threshing  and  harvest  time  women,  old  and  young, 
showed  their  best  at  cooking  and  housekeeping.  The 
tables  bent  with  wholesome,  well-cooked  food  —  turkey, 
chicken,  beef,  mutton,  pork,  potatoes  and  many  other 
vegetables,  big  bowls  of  steaming  gravy,  pies  and  cakes 
of  many  varieties,  preserves,  spiced  fruit  and  pickles. 
They  were  wonderful  feeding  days  and  for  feasting  even 
exceeded  Christmas  time. 

I  learned  when  very  young  to  cut  bands  and  several 
times  nearly  cut  the  feeder's  hands,  but  luckily  did  not. 
As  I  grew  older  I  learned  to  rig  up  the  horse  power, 
pitch  from  the  stack  onto  the  feeding  table  and  also  to 
feed  the  machine,  which  required  the  greatest  degree  of 
expertness  of  all. 

Binding  in  the  wheat  field  behind  a  reaper  —  they 
were  a  new  thing  and  there  were  only  a  few  in  our  part ; 
cradling,  raking  and  binding  also.  Excellence  marked 
women  and  men.  To  be  a  good  cook  and  housekeeper 
and  economical  made  a  woman  famous,  and  the  young 


WILD  BOYHOOD  DREAMS  57 

woman  thus  distinguished  married  early.  Young  men 
were  told  to  observe  a  girl  peeling  apples  or  potatoes. 
If  she  pared  them  thickly  and  wastefully  avoid  her  as 
a  wasteful  wench,  but  if  the  parings  were  thin  it  was 
evidence  of  care  and  thrift. 

Men  who  excelled  in  chopping,  cradling,  binding,  or 
in  anything  were  known  all  over  wide  communities  and 
were  pointed  out.  It  all  made  for  wholesome  ideals. 

There  were  a  good  many  chances  to  dicker  and  use 
one's  wits.  One  winter  evening  walking  along  a  frozen 
dirt  road  that  ran  at  right  angles  to  the  pike  that  had 
been  recently  built  to  the  Tippecanoe  battleground, 
where  General  Harrison  beat  the  Prophet,  I  saw  a  queer- 
looking  animal  in  a  bleak  field  of  dry  and  rustling  corn 
stalks.  It  was  yellow  and  had  long,  matted  hair,  and 
at  the  distance  it  was,  might  have  been  a  big  goat  or 
almost  anything.  When  I  came  up  to  where  the  man 
of  the  place  was  feeding  the  hogs  I  asked  him  what  it 
was.  He  said  it  was  a  mule  and  as  he  didn't  like  mules 
nohow  he  would  sell  it.  To  my  consternation  he  made 
me  a  price  of  two  dollars  on  it.  I  was  not  sharp  at 
trading  but  I  asked  him  what  was  the  matter  with  the 
mule. 

"  Boy,"  he  said,  "  so  far's  health  is  consarned  that 
critter  be  a  well  one  an'  kin  eat  glass." 

Then  I  asked  the  age !  "  Dumined  if  I  know,"  he 
replied,  "  and  it  don't  make  no  difference  nohow  kase 
nobody  never  seen  a  dead  mule." 

I  bought  the  mule. 

When  I  entered  the  field  to  inspect  my  purchase  the 
thing  came  at  me  with  mouth  open,  teeth  gleaming  and 
issuing  fiery  snorts  altogether  like  a  ferocious  fiend. 
I  have  been  in  close  quarters  since  with  grizzly  bears 
and  lions,  but  nothing  has  ever  come  so  near  to  getting 


58  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

me,  to  the  best  of  my  belief,  as  that  mule  did.  I  barely 
made  the  rail  fence  and  fell  over  it  as  though  thrown 
by  a  cyclone. 

The  former  owner  of  the  beast  was  doubled  up  with 
raucous  laughter.  I  felt  cheap  and  some  mad.  When 
I  asked  him  what  he  meant  by  unloading  that  thing  on 
me  he  offered  to  buy  the  mule  back  for  a  dollar. 

I  refused.  The  thought  came  to  me  that  I  might  also 
sell  him  "  as  lie  ran/'  as  I  had  bought  him,  and  there 
seemed  to  be  nothing  wrong  about  trying. 

In  fact,  I  did  not  think  of  ethics  at  all.  The  only 
thing  that  I  really  wondered  about  was  whether  it  was 
a  mule  or  something  else.  I  had  heard  repeatedly  that 
there  are  nine  kinds  of  meat  in  a  turtle  and  I  really 
thought  the  mule  might  have  nine  kinds  of  animals  in 
him.  He  roared  like  a  lion,  opened  his  jaws  like  an 
alligator,  showed  his  teeth  like  a  dragon  and  charged 
with  lowered  head  like  a  billy  goat. 

I  went  on  to  town.  Next  day  I  looked  up  a  Jew 
junk  dealer.  We  knew  him  as  the  ragman.  I  told 
him  I  had  a  mule  for  sale  for  twenty-five  dollars.  It 
seemed  to  me  that  his  eyes  gleamed  at  the  chance  he 
foresaw  to  beat  me.  My  eyes  could  have  gleamed  also 
because  I  made  up  my  mind  to  sell  that  mule  for  two 
dollars  if  I  couldn't  get  more. 

He  started  for  the  country  with  me  at  once.  When 
we  reached  the  field  of  cornstalks  the  mule  was  browsing 
about  a  hundred  yards  from  the  fence.  It  was  a  frosty 
morning.  The  sun  glinted  from  the  rufous  side  of  the 
beast.  He  didn't  look  badly  at  all.  What  I  feared  was 
that  the  Jew  would  try  to  inspect  him.  To  my  sur- 
prise and  deep  relief  he  did  not.  We  had  been  hauled 
out  by  a  poor,  old,  gray  rack  o'  bones  that  was  ready 
to  cave  in  at  any  time,  and  the  junk  dealer  knew  it. 


WILD  BOYHOOD  DREAMS  59 

Evidently  lie  was  bound  to  buy  that  mule  without  ex- 
citing me  as  to  his  intentions.  His  first  offer  was  five 
dollars.  I  was  anxious  to  take  it  but  the  lap  gods  held 
rue  off.  We  dickered  rapidly  for  a  short  time  and  I 
sold  the  wild  red  mule  to  him  for  eleven  dollars. 

He  went  to  the  farmer  who  owned  the  field  and  asked 
if  the  mule  belonged  to  me  to  sell,  and  that  farmer 
looked  as  innocent  as  a  poisonous  toad  stool  to  a  mush- 
room hunter  as  lie  told  him  it  did. 

Then  the  Jew  paid  me  eleven  dollars  out  of  a  very 
greasy  wallet.  The?  farmer  and  I  stood  where  we  could 
watch  the  new  owner  take1  over  his  property.  We  had 
a  roaring  laugh  and  then  a  fright,  because  it  looked  at 
one  time  as  though  the  mule  would  catch  the  Jew  and 
eat  him. 

The  ragman  was  more  persistent  than  I  had  been. 
He  detected  power  in  that  mule  which  if  harnessed 
would  pull  his  junk  wagon  many  a  mile.  But  no  use. 
He  finally  came  to  me  and  demanded  his  money  back. 

I  followed  the  example  of  the  farmer  and  offered  him 
six  dollars.  At  the  same  time  I  suggested  to  him  that 
he  might  get  help  and  catch  the  beast,  or  failing  that  he 
could  sell  him  "  as  he  ran."  That  ended  the  mule  trade 
so  far  as  I  was  concerned. 


CHAPTER  VI 

SWEPT    INTO    THE    HUMAN    MAELSTROM    OF    CHICAGO 

I  STARTED  to  walk  to  Chicago,  along  the  Lake 
Erie  and  Western  railroad  tracks.  The  exact 
reason  I  started  to  walk  was  because  the  train 
crew  pulled  me  out  of  a  box  car  and  bade  me  do  so. 
Tramps  were  everywhere  and  had  become  such  a  men- 
ace as  to  forfeit  all  sympathy.  I  had  spent  nearly  all 
my  money  on  clothing  and  did  not  have  any  to  spare  for 
railroad  fare.  At  that  time  the  fares  were  so  high  that 
a  tolerable  walker  could  make  good  wages  afoot.  It 
was  autumn.  The  golden  pawpaws  burst  as  they  fell 
to  the  ground.  Wrinkled  persimmons  hung  on  the 
trees.  Pheasants  were  in  full  plumage  arid  the  quail 
and  prairie  chickens  were  strong  of  flight.  Wild  ducks 
and  geese  were  winging  south.  Apples  and  turnips  and 
cabbages  were  buried  in  pyramidal  heaps  in  the  field. 
Corn  husking  was  occupying  the  men  folks,  and  the 
women  were  about  through  "  putting  up  "  canned  stuff 
for  the  winter. 

I  was  leaving  all  these  Hoosier  things  forever.  But 
I  did  not  know  it  then;  I  did  not  even  recognize  my 
own  feelings  as  they  surged  within  me.  Only  one  thing 
was  clear.  I  was  going  to  Chicago  where  so  many 
Hoosier  lads  had  gone  before  and  have  gone  since,  only 
to  be  swallowed  remorselessly. 

At  that  age  of  limited  experience  I  did  not  know  the 

60 


THE  HUMAN  MAELSTROM  61 

great  cities  devour  boys  and  girls  as  a  more  avid  Mino- 
taur than  the  Cretan  monster  in  the  Labyrinth  that 
Daedalus  built,  that  ate  the  seven  maidens  and  seven 
youths  sent  by  Athens  as  an  annual  tribute,  until  The- 
seus killed  the  demon. 

What  a  lot  of  Theseuses  we  need  nowadays  to  hunt 
down  the  modern  monster  Minotau^s. 

One  night  I  slept  a  while  in  a  straw  stack.  First  I 
dug  a  hole  in  the  stack  and  crawling  in  I  pulled  the 
straw  in  after  me.  Just  as  I  got  comfortably  warm 
and  asleep,  the  farmer's  dog  treed  me,  and  I  was  driven 
forth.  Next  I  crawled  into  a  corn  shock  where  I  was 
very  cold  and  did  not  sleep  much.  It  took  me  three 
days  and  nights  to  get  to  Chicago,  only  one  hundred 
and  thirty  miles  from  LaFayette.  Part  of  the  way  I 
managed  to  cover  in  freight  trains,  but  I  walked  more 
than  half  the  distance. 

There  was  a  railroad  station  at  the  foot  of  Lake 
Street,  I  think,  with  dismal,  unpainted,  wooden  sheds 
and  many  rookeries  about.  Across  from  the  station 
were  saloon  dives,  cheap  hotels,  restaurants  and  barber 
shops.  My  first  impressions  of  Chicago  were  very  dis- 
appointing and  I  fear  they  have  not  improved  much  yet. 

I  had  just  fifteen  cents.  About  nine  o'clock  in  the 
morning  I  arrived. 

Entering  a  barber  shop  I  asked  if  I  might  wash. 
The  boss  said  I  could.  When  I  thanked  him  as  I 
started  to  leave  the  shop  the  barber  stopped  me  and 
said  I  owed  him  fifteen  cents.  It  was  every  cent  I  had 
in  the  world  but  I  paid  and  then  plunged  into  the 
human  jungle. 

I  have  seen  the  highways  and  byways  of  the  earth 
since  and  have  confronted  many  exacting  conditions,  but 
I  never  again  have  had  such  heart  sinkings  as  I  had 


62  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

that  morning.  To  have  no  breakfast  was  not  such  a 
serious  thing  for  a  strong  boy. 

Alone  in  the  middle  of  the  Sahara  I  have  felt  nearer 
to  friends  and  love  and  sympathy  than  I  felt  after  the 
barber  took  my  last  cent.  Some  one  to  turn  to  was 
what  I  hungered  for  more  than  food. 

Where  to  go  or  which  way  to  turn  seemed  to  make 
no  difference.  Rivers  of  people  swept  by  in  ceaseless, 
rapid  flow.  There  was  the  sullen  roar  of  the  city  like 
a  Niagara  of  fierce  sorrow.  It  seemed  to  me  that  all 
the  faces  I  saw  were  hungry  and  hard. 

I  had  heard  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  rather  a  new  thing 
then,  and  made  my  way  to  its  rooms.  But  they  stared 
at  me  and  spoke  in  a  manner  so  short  and  feelingless 
that  I  almost  fled  from  the  room. 

It  seemed  as  though  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  was  run  for  boys 
who  had  a  home,  and  not  for  the  strange  and  homeless. 

Of  course  I  felt  hard,  unjustly  so  no  doubt,  and  I  was 
terrified  by  my  own  thoughts,  which  were  that  I  hoped 
the  place  would  burn  down. 

What  a  trivial  cause  to  start  such  a  low  trend!  I 
soon  tired  and  wandered  about  cold  and  rather  despair- 
ingly. Soon  again  I  was  at  the  depot. 

A  man  with  a  big  valise  hailed  me  and  gave  me  the 
bag  to  carry.  It  was  big  and  heavy  but  I  was  strong. 
When  I  got  it  to  the  dollar-a-day  hotel  he  sought  he 
gave  me  five  cents.  I  could  have  blessed  him,  but  I 
only  hurried  away  and  found  a  place  where  I  got  a  big 
bowl  of  soup  and  bread  for  the  money  I  had  earned. 

I  haunted  the  railroad  station  and  for  several  days 
carried  quite  a  number  of  bags  and  parcels  and  earned 
twenty-five  cents  a  day. 

At  night  I  slept  in  the  depot  and  was  seldom  mo- 
lested. To  me  it  was  a  cheerful  room  at  night,  as  the 


THE  HUMAN  MAELSTKOM  63 

coal  stove  with  open  door  cast  a  bituminous  glow  which 
made  fine  shadows  that  I  was  too  big  now  to  be  afraid 
of.  Sometimes  I  had  bad  dreams,  and  once  I  awoke  in 
a  cold  sweat  because  I  was  chased  by  "  Nigger  Henry," 
who  lived  in  a  cave  up  Tenth  Street  "  holler  "  at  La- 
Fayette,  hissed  on  by  "  Crazy  Cyrus,"  who  lived  out 
by  Reynold's  pasture,  and  wrung  his  hands  and  gawped 
"  bloodle-doodle." 

Between  errands  for  passengers  I  hunted  for  a  job. 
Finally  a  cheap  sort  of  hotel  boarding  house  on  Wa- 
bash  Avenue  near  Polk  Street  took  me  as  assistant 
porter.  The  work  was  to  do  anything  I  was  told  to  do 
by  anybody.  When  nothing  more  definite  was  in  sight 
I  was  to  scrub  the  stairs  and  floor  and  wash  the  win- 
dows. I  got  my  board  and  was  promised  three  dollars  a 
week.  My  shoes  were  wearing  out  and  I  had  no  over- 
coat. 

Trips  downtown  afoot  through  the  snow  and  slush 
breasting  the  lake  winds  not  warmly  clad  are  the  fea- 
tures I  best  remember  of  that  experience. 

I  could  not  get  my  pay  so  I  began  to  hunt  for  an- 
other job.  A  fifteen-cent  restaurant  on  Clark  Street 
offered  me  two  dollars  a  week  and  board  as  a  potato 
peeler.  I  had  to  work  in  a  grimy  basement  but  I  liked 
it  because  when  the  first  week  was  up  I  got  my  pay  and 
I  could  see  new  shoes  ahead.  The  cook  made  soup  of 
the  potato  peelings  which  was  strained  and  sent  up  on 
a  dumb  waiter. 

I  worked  here  for  some  weeks.  There  were  many 
swift  changes  in  the  staff  and  soon  I  found  myself  sec- 
ond cook.  Then  I  went  upstairs  as  a  waiter  at  two 
dollars  and  fifty  cents  a  week,  because  the  business  could 
not  afford  a  second  cook. 

It  was  while  waiting  on  the  table  that  I  met  a  Trib- 


64  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

une  reporter,  who  came  to  eat  our  best  fifteen-cent  meals 
in  the  city.  We  became  friends  and  he  found  work  for 
me  with  his  paper. 

The  Times  was  the  big  paper  of  Chicago,  but  the 
Tribune  had  started  upon  the  growth  that  landed  it  at 
the  top.  I  really  ran  errands  at  first  for  the  city  editor. 
Sometimes  he  gave  me  unimportant  assignments. 
Gradually  he  gave  me  more  to  do  and  I  learned  a  great 
deal.  Of  course,  I  felt  at  home  around  a  newspaper 
on  account  of  the  experience  I  had  had  at  LaFayette. 

Hard  times  grew  harder.  It  was  the  early  summer 
of  1879  that  the  Tribune  cut  things  to  the  marrow. 
I  was  one  of  the  first  to  go  because  I  could  be  easiest 
spared.  For  my  work  on  the  Tribune  I  had  been  paid 
five  dollars  a  week,  perhaps  really  more  than  I  earned. 
I  lived  on  less  than  two  dollars  a  week  for  food  and 
saved  enough  to  improve  the  quality  and  character  of 
my  clothing. 

The  streets  were  filled  with  workless  men  and  to  get 
a  job  of  any  kind  seemed  hopeless.  So  I  made  up  my 
mind  to  go  to  Milwaukee  and  farther  north  if  neces- 
sary. The  trains  were  closely  watched  and  I  suppose 
I  was  not  a  clever  hobo,  so  I  walked  most  of  the  eighty- 
five  miles  to  Milwaukee.  Naturally  I  saw  and  fell  in 
with  many  tramps  and  learned  their  ways.  It  was  a 
shock  to  my  youthful  ideals  and  sympathy  to  learn  that 
most  of  these  gentry  would  not  work  if  they  could  get 
out  of  it.  It  was  always  a  satisfactory  day  when  they 
had  bummed  their  grub  without  turning  over  a  hand. 
Few  of  them  were  inclined  to  be  criminals. 

In  fact,  they  were  drifting  derelicts  on  their  way  to 
the  hopeless,  helpless,  social  sea  of  Sargasso  which  en- 
gulfs the  inert  human  debris  just  as  the  flotsam  of  the 
ocean  is  caught.  Nor  did  I  then  recognize  the  type  at 


THE  HUMAN  MAELSTROM  65 

all  except  as  something  not  to  tie  up  to  permanently. 

It  was  only  in  after  years  that  I  came  to  realize  that 
these  deficients  are  the  certain  product  of  a  social  usury 
of  yesterday  and  continued  to-day  with  slight  abate- 
ment. Theirs  is  a  disease  of  the  overworked  world. 

Milwaukee  offered  nothing.  It  was  winter.  I 
walked  on  north  through  Fond  du  Lac,  Oshkosh  and 
Green  Bay. 

A  farmer  living  near  Fond  du  Lac,  to  whom  I  ap- 
plied for  work,  said  he  would  give  me  a  job  if  I  could 
hold  it  down.  It  consisted  of  being  a  valet  to  a  man- 
eating  stallion.  I  fought  that  horse  for  a  week  with 
everything  that  I  could  use  and  not  kill  him,  and  I 
would  have  finished  the  vicious  brute  if  I  had  dared. 
After  having  my  clothing  partially  bitten  off  me  and 
suffering  from  not  a  few  nips  that  reached  my  flesh,  I 
gave  up  the  job.  It  is  really  the  only  time  in  my  life 
that  I  have  admitted  defeat,  and  I  have  longed  for  an- 
other chance  at  that  horse  but  in  vain. 

On  toward  the  pole  star  I  plugged  away.  At  Osh- 
kosh I  was  seized  with  neuralgia  from  exposure  and 
underfeeding.  It  made  me  jump,  I  tell  you.  Some 
good  people  took  me  to  their  home  for  a  few  days  and 
then  I  went  on. 

The  Chicago  &  Northwestern  was  building  its  Me- 
nominee  Range  extension.  I  worked  in  the  construc- 
tion gang  near  where  Hermansville  was  afterwards 
located.  The  force  was  reduced  and  I  found  myself 
among  those  laid  off  at  the  northernmost  limits  of  set- 
tlement. No  use  to  go  farther,  so  I  began  to  retrace 
myself. 

There  were  tracks  of  bear,  lynx  and  wolves,  and  the 
latter  sounded  their  coursing  tongues  every  night. 
Every  hunting  dream  that  had  tenanted  my  mind  as  a 


66  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

boy  was  revived  as  I  saw  deep-worn  deer  runway  after 
runway. 

Strange  how  the  red  deer  followed  the  same  paths  in 
their  food  migrations  for  centuries.  Indians  built  deer 
fences  and  killed  thousands  along  them,  only  taking  skin 
and  saddle.  Civilization  was  even  more  ruthless.  It 
is  pathetic  to  observe  the  deer  habits  now.  They  try 
to  migrate  as  in  the  olden  days,  but  so  restricted  and 
cut  up  is  the  zone  of  wild  life  that  it  is  more  like  a 
city  Zoo.  Game  sanctuaries  must  be  established. 

Things  raced  through  my  mind  in  a  disconnected  way. 
I  wondered  where  I  might  get  a  start  in  life  and  how; 
a  real  one.  Then  back  to  the  scenes  and  adventures  of 
early  boyhood  my  mind  would  travel.  I  contrasted  the 
big  forests  with  the  Wea  Plains,  the  Wabash  bottoms 
and  the  borderland  of  the  Grand  Prairie  in  Indiana. 

I  sat  on  a  log  to  rest  and  heard  the  drumming  of  a 
pheasant.  They  call  it  a  partridge  north;  the  ruffed 
grouse.  It  made  me  think  somehow  or  other  of  a  June 
afternoon  long  ago  when  a  mower  had  cut  three  legs  off 
my  double-nosed  pointer  pup  as  he  lay  in  the  grass, 
panting  from  his  intense  work.  I  had  been  training 
him  on  young  prairie  chickens  that  kind  of  just  fluffed 
up  out  of  the  grass  when  I  flushed  them.  I  was  a  big 
boy,  but  I  cried  in  secret  when  I  shot  the  beautiful 
pointer  to  put  him  out  of  misery.  He  had  been  pre- 
sented to  me  by  a  man  whose  two  children  I  had  pulled 
out  of  a  burning  shed.  When  I  was  asked  what  I  would 
like  to  have  as  a  reward,  poor  as  I  was,  I  said  a  bird 
dog.  One  morning  while  going  out  to  train  the  puppy 
I  saw  a  black  cat,  and  shot  it  as  it  was  stealing  up  on 
some  young  quail.  Nigger  Bill  had  told  me  it  was 
certain  bad  luck  to  kill  a  cat  and  worst  of  all  to  kill  a 
black  one,  but  I  didn't  believe  him,  because  after  many 


THE  HUMAN  MAELSTROM  67 

struggles  in  which  I  was  considerably  scratched  up  I 
had  cut  a  cat's  head  off  and  no  bad  luck  seemed  to  fol- 
low. 

Now  I  believed  it  and  as  I  sat  on  the  log,  with  head 
full  of  disconnected  thoughts,  remembered  that  Nigger 
Bill  had  said  that  to  kill  a  cat  meant  bad  luck  for  seven 
years.  I  had  two  more  years  to  go.  Then  I  fell  to 
thinking  of  signs  and  made  up  my  mind  to  be  very  care- 
ful for,  I  argued,  even  if  there's  nothing  to  them,  it 
won't  hurt  to  avoid  them. 

And  that  is  the  reason  why  signs  are  bad.  Those 
who  are  unobserving  and  careless  are  always  the  ones 
who  trespass  most  in  the  field  of  superstition  with  the 
consequences  only  those  things  that  would  naturally 
happen  such  persons. 

My  thoughts  covered  a  wide  horizon  as  I  tramped 
along  day  by  day.  Finally  after  the  usual  experiences 
of  hunger  and  weariness  I  again  reached  Milwaukee. 
I  had  not  been  depressed  a  moment  since  the  morning 
in  Chicago  when  I  was  penniless  and  friendless  in  that 
awful  mire  of  men.  The  limitless  forests  of  the  north 
that  spread  out  under  the  boreal  aurora  with  their  bear, 
wolves  and  wild  cat  things  were  kinder  than  the  big 
hungry  city  with  its  human  wolves  that  are  worse. 


CHAPTER  VII 

I   DRIVE   A    COAL   WAGON PILE    LUMBER CAPTURE   A 

MURDERER    AND    DOCK    WALLOP    IN    MILWAUKEE 

MY  first  job  in  Milwaukee  was  driving  a  coal 
wagon  for  H.  B.  Pearson.     He  was  an  alder- 
man  and  a  prosperous  coal  dealer  on  West 
Water  Street.     In  my  memory  he  dwells  as  one  of  the 
best  men  in  the  world,  just  because  he  had  a  kind  word 
and  a  bread-getting  place  for  me.     It  was  the  early  part 
of  the  spring  of  1880.     I  was  twenty  years  old  and  big 
and  strong  enough  to  do  anything. 

Spring  came  with  a  rush  that  soon  put  the  coal 
wagon  out  of  business,  but  not  before  I  learned  a  good 
deal  about  the  streets  and  lay  of  the  city.  Right  away 
I  asked  why  none  of  the  streets  crossed  the  river  straight 
and  why  all  of  them  bore  different  names  after  cross- 
ing. Mr.  Pearson  patiently  told  me  the  reasons  and 
said  that  they  were  the  same  that  kept  Milwaukee  back, 
and  from  being  a  bigger  place  than  Chicago.  When 
the  town  was  first  started  local  rivalries,  that  have  killed 
more  towns  than  any  other  cause,  were  a  conflagration 
in  Milwaukee.  Three  towns  separated  by  the  Kinni- 
Kinnick  and  Milwaukee  rivers  strove  against  one  an- 
other. They  were  Juneautown,  Walkertown  and  Kil- 
bourne  City,  and  so  bitter  were  they  that  bridges  were 
not  built  and  there  were  many  fights  and  much  bad 
blood.  Men  build  cities  even  more  than  nature.  The 
fact  that  Milwaukee  is  a  city  at  all  with  the  bad  start 

68* 


I  DKIVE  A  COAL  WAGON  69 

it  got  proves  that  it  has  better  natural  advantages  than 
Chicago. 

By  the  time  the  coal  wagon  had  to  go  the  season  of 
navigation  had  opened,  and  lumber  hookers  were  com- 
ing in  with  their  green  cargoes.  Mr.  Pearson  helped 
me  to  get  a  job  piling  lumber  in  Durr  &  Rugee's  lumber 
yard  on  the  south  side.  It  was  hard  work  and  by  quit- 
ting time  I  was  always  tired,  but  not  so  much  so  that 
I  could  riot  do  night  work  on  Gregory  Hurson's  Good- 
rich docks. 

I  got  ninety  cents  a  day  in  the  lumber  yard  and 
twenty  cents  an  hour  for  dock-walloping,  plus  kicks  and 
curses  at  the  latter. 

An  attic  over  Godfrey  &  CrandalPs  job  printing  shop 
on  Michigan  Street  furnished  a  place  to  sleep  on  a  pallet 
on  the  floor.  It  was  always  a  soft  pallet  after  I  got 
through  dock  walloping  at  ten  or  eleven  o'clock.  Some- 
times I  worked  until  midnight  loading  or  unloading 
vessels,  and  the  work  was  quite  certain  to  be  had  every 
night. 

Real  trouble  soon  brewed  at  the  lumber  yard.  I  was 
the  only  American  on  the  job.  All  the  others  were 
Poles  and  the  foreman  was  Polish.  They  conspired 
against  me  and  gave  me  the  worst  end  of  it,  or  I  thought 
they  did,  when  it  came  to  unloading  a  schooner.  I 
noticed  that  two  Poles  were  assigned  to  take  away  from 
one  man  over  the  rail.  I  had  to  do  that  job  alone,  and 
there  were  other  signs  that  I  was  not  welcome  among 
them.  Since  that  time  I  have  been  treated  better  in 
Poland  that  I  was  by  the  Polacks  in  Durr  &  Rugee's 
yard.  Things  were  coming  to  a  pass  where  there  had 
to  be  a  show  down,  and  then  I  was  certain  I  would  have 
to  go.  My  employers,  no  matter  how  fair,  could  not 
keep  me  as  against  all  the  balance  of  the  gang. 


70  THE  IEON  HUNTER 

There  was  a  turn  of  good  luck,  if  ever  there  is  such  a 
thing,  and  I  think  there  is  because  so  many  things  hap- 
pen in  a  person's  life  that  cannot  be  traced  to  their  cause 
source  within  the  individual. 

Two  young  fellows  from  Louisville  named  Baber  and 
Gesswein  had  started  an  evening  newspaper  called  the 
Signal.  It  is  now  the  Milwaukee  Journal,  with  many 
hiatuses  between.  George  Yenowine  was  also  one  of 
the  unlucky  Kentuckians.  They  got  into  debt  to  God- 
frey &  Crandall,  the  printers,  in  whose  attic  I  had  my 
abode,  and  lost  their  struggling  property  for  printing 
bills. 

Hampton  Leedom,  a  sturdy  man  of  middle  age,  with 
hunchback,  red  visage  and  kind  heart,  kept  the  books 
for  Godfrey  &  Crandall  and  for  some  others.  He, 
too,  often  worked  at  night  and  I  became  acquainted 
with  him  and  he  took  an  interest  in  me  that  I  shall  never 
forget.  It  was  Mr.  Leedom  who  told  me  about  the  Sig- 
nal and  its  troubles.  I  told  him  about  the  newspaper 
and  printer's  work  I  had  done,  and  he  promised  to  keep 
a  look  out  for  me  for  a  job. 

Before  taking  the  coal  wagon  I  had  been  to  every 
printer  and  publisher  in  Milwaukee.  I  could  not  hang 
around  long  because  I  had  not  done  better  up  to  that 
time  than  to  work  from  hand  to  mouth,  and  there  did 
not  seem  to  be  a  job  in  prospect  anyhow.  One  night 
Hampton  Leedom  advised  me  not  to  go  to  the  lumber 
yard  next  day  because  he  had  been  telling  George 
Godfrey,  of  Godfrey  &  Crandall,  about  me.  I  took  his 
advice. 

Mr.  Godfrey  was  a  slight,  swart  man  who  had  char- 
acter and  ability.  He  looked  over  his  spectacles  at  me 
and  appeared  cross  but  he  was  not.  I  had  heard  a  good 
deal  about  him.  He  was  a  greenbacker,  and  from  what 


I  DRIVE  A  COAL  WAGON  71 

I  had  heard  of  greenbackers  from  my  father,  I  had  a 
great  prejudice  against  them  and  could  not  understand 
how  a  man  could  be  one  and  a  respectable  citizen  at  the 
same  time.  That  George  Godfrey  could  be  gave  me  a 
measure  of  his  versatility. 

He  also  printed  the  Milwaukee  Commercial  Letter, 
which  was  edited  by  Mr.  Friese,  commercial  editor  of 
the  Sentinel.  Mr.  Godfrey  told  me  he  was  anxious  to 
get  circulation  for  the  Signal,  an  ambition  quite  com- 
mon to  publishers  at  all  times.  He  said  he  did  not  wish 
to  keep  the  paper  but  could  not  dispose  of  it  to  advan- 
tage without  building  it  up  some.  I  thought  it  queer 
that  he  should  tell  me  these  things  and  concluded  it  must 
be  because  I  came  from  LaFayette,  where  he  had  a 
brother,  the  Methodist  preacher.  It  was  not  this  at 
all  as  I  came  to  know.  He  was  just  one  of  those  open 
men  who  think  aloud  and  consequently  never  lie. 

I  got  a  job  soliciting  subscriptions.  The  Signal  was 
Milwaukee's  first  two-cent  paper.  The  working  peo- 
ple had  never  been  canvassed,  I  think,  for  they  seemed 
eager  to  try  the  daily  at  ten  cents  a  week.  I  secured 
as  many  as  fifty  subscribers  in  a  day  at  Bay  View, 
where  lived  the  rolling  mill  employees  and  other  better 
paid,  skilled  workmen. 

My  success  made  me  quite  famous  in  the  office. 
Hampton  Leedom  told  me  I  ought  to  shuck  my  Hoosier 
togs  as  not  being  suited  to  my  new  stratum  in  the  world. 
He  gave  me  a  credit  with  F.  P.  Gluck,  tailor,  and  I 
used  it  to  obtain  my  first  made-to-order  suit. 

My  big  cowboy  hat  went  into  the  discard  with  the 
old  clothes  for  all  of  which  I  got  one  dollar  and  eighty 
cents,  at  a  West  Water  Street  den  of  three-ball  finance. 

Mr.  Godfrey  was  running  the  paper  in  quite  a  popu- 
lar way.  He  took  a  good  deal  of  advice  from  Robert 


72  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

Schilling,  whose  socialist  paper,  Der  Deutsche  Re- 
former, was  printed  at  Godfrey  &  CrandalPs.  Schill- 
ing was  a  strong,  earnest,  honest  propagandist. 

A  newspaper  man  named  C.  C.  Bowsfield  came  along 
and  made  an  offer  for  the  Signal.  He  got  it  and 
changed  the  name  to  the  Chronicle. 

Because  I  knew  how  to  handle  the  carrier  boys,  as 
demonstrated  one  turbulent  evening,  Bowsfield  made  me 
city  circulator.  I  got  the  routes  arranged  and  made  a 
pretty  good  start  with  street  sales  and  newsdealers,  be- 
fore I  was  transferred  to  the  editorial  department. 
This  was  what  I  had  been  praying  for.  Not  that  the 
writing  end  of  the  paper  was  very  formidable,  because 
it  was  not,  but  it  was  on  the  way  for  me. 

Bowsfield  chewed  a  toothpick  and  looked  wise  and  im- 
portant as  owner  and  editor,  and  I  was  certain  he  felt 
just  as  he  looked. 

Darwin  Pavey,  assistant  to  Bowsfield,  was  between 
six  and  seven  feet  tall,  very  skeletony  and  always  looked 
hungry  as  his  big,  gray  eyes  wandered  about  his  food- 
less  environs.  It  seemed  to  me  that  he  was  always  writ- 
ing puffs  for  the  Newhall  House  that  never  got  onto  the 
advertising  books.  This  was  proved  right  by  finding 
out  that  he  got  his  dinner  at  that  hotel  without  other 
pay.  They  even  permitted  him  to  carry  fruit  and  stuff 
away  from  the  table.  Now  and  then  he  would  bait  me 
with  a  taste  of  these  titbits. 

It  was  great  to  watch  him  pick  his  teeth  with  a  wire 
he  carried  to  clean  his  pipe.  I  thought  that  I  would 
strive  to  become  a  great  editor  like  Mr.  Pavey  and  also 
pick  my  teeth  with  a  pipe  wire  after  enjoying  a  sump- 
tuous dinner  at  a  two-dollar  hotel. 

The  Chronicle  did  not  prosper  any  better  than  the 
Signal.  Bowsfield  got  new  blood  and  some  money  into 


I  DRIVE  A  COAL  WAGON  73 

it  by  interesting  Frank  A.  Flower.  I  never  had  known 
such  a  man  as  Flower.  He  seemed  to  me  to  be  a  walk- 
ing dictionary.  But  he  could  not  supply  the  nourish- 
ment the  Chronicle  needed. 

My  salary  was  supposed  to  be  seven  dollars  a  week. 
I  had  been  getting  enough  of  this  barely  to  live  up  to 
the  point  it  stopped  altogether.  My  last  week  on  the 
paper  is  memorable  for  several  reasons.  I  had  been 
sent  to  pawn  Mrs.  Flower's  ear  rings  in  order  to  pay 
the  printers. 

We  were  all  in  terrible  shape.  I  had  gone  from  liv- 
ing on  fifteen  cents  a  day  to  a  generous  free-lunch  saloon 
on  East  Water  Street,  across  from  the  city  hall,  to  which 
I  was  introduced  by  George  C.  Youngs,  a  printer  friend. 

Every  day,  nearly,  I  scooped  our  rival,  the  Evening 
Wisconsin.  The  very  police  seemed  to  be  won  by  the 
struggle  I  was  making  and  everybody  helped  out  with 
exclusive  news. 

Walter  Gardner,  city  editor  of  the  Wisconsin,  sent 
for  me.  I  went  with  quaking  knees,  caused  as  much  by 
lack  of  food  as  by  awe  and  desire  to  get  a  job  on  the 
richest  paper  in  town.  Not  in  all  my  life  before  or 
since  have  I  wanted  anything  so  much.  Mr.  Gardner 
asked  me  how  I  would  like  to  work  on  the  Wisconsin. 
I  replied  with  profound  insincerity : 

"  Oh  !  I  don't  know." 

Manifestly  he  was  surprised. 

"  What !  "  he  exclaimed.  "  Don't  you  realize  that 
you  are  a  real  newspaper  man  the  minute  you  come  over 
here?" 

I  bantered  him  with  the  query :  "  Is  that  why  they 
call  it  the  Evening  Granny?  " 

Gardner  was  said  to  be  a  college  man.  They  were 
rare  in  newspaper  offices  then.  He  had  a  reputation 


74  THE  IKON  HUNTEK 

and  was  superior,  but  he  had  but  a  dim  sense  of  humor. 
I  could  see  that  he  was  struggling  between  a  desire  to 
kick  me  out  and  a  kind  of  admiration  of  my  audacity. 
If  he  had  known  how  high  my  gulp  was  he  would  have 
hired  me  on  the  spot.  Perhaps  he  did  know  somewhat. 
Anyhow  he  offered  me  ten  dollars  a  week.  I  am  afraid 
now  that  I  tried  to  give  him  the  impression  that  my 
wages  were  more  than  that  on  the  Chronicle,  but  such  a 
preposterous  idea  could  not  have  lodged  in  his  sober 
brain. 

We  had  more  conversation.  I  told  him  that  on  the 
Chronicle  I  was  the  whole  thing,  which  now  was  the 
truth,  with  the  exception  that  the  paper  never  would 
have  come  out  if  it  had  not  been  for  Julia  O'Brien,  a 
type  sticker,  and  Dick  Bavis,  the  foreman. 

They  kept  the  crew  going  with  such  pawnshop  money 
as  I  could  raise  for  Bowsfield  and  Flower,  who  were 
afraid  they  would  be  caught  at  it  and  so  sent  me. 

Finally,  Gardner  offered  me  twelve  dollars  a  week 
and  the  haggling  stopped  instantly.  It  was  big  wages 
even  in  Chicago,  and  unusually  good  for  Milwaukee. 
I  had  not  been  on  the  Wisconsin  long  before  Mr.  Gard- 
ner and  I  clashed.  He  ordered  me  to  write  in  his  style, 
which  I  could  not  do,  and  for  that  matter  nobody  could 
except  himself.  He  said  he  would  fire  me,  which  was 
a  bluff.  It  sent  me  with  my  trouble  to  Uncle  Billy 
Cramer,  senior  of  Cramer,  Aikens  &  Cramer,  owners  of 
the  Wisconsin  and  also  of  a  big  job  and  ready  print 
business  that  made  them  rich. 

Uncle  Billy  was  as  deaf  as  a  big  collection  of  adders 
and  nearly  blind  also.  His  other  senses  were  unim- 
paired and  the  story  of  his  marriage  some  time  after  this 
incident  was  a  raw  morsel  among  the  boys. 

I  think  my  nerve  in  bracing  him  personally  appealed 


I  DEIVE  A  COAL  WAGON  75 

to  him.  Anyhow,  Mr.  Gardner  went  on  an  extended 
leave  for  his  health,  and  upon  returning  became  an  edi- 
torial writer. 

The  Chronicle  had  been  unloaded  on  Tom  and  Jim 
Somers,  democratic  lawyers  who  wanted  an  organ. 
They  got  one.  Frank  Flower  came  over  on  the  "  Wis- 
conse  "  to  take  Gardner's  place  as  city  editor.  The  old 
paper  took  on  more  life  than  a  doped  race  horse. 

I  was  permitted  to  run  an  astounding  scandal  of  the 
county  farm,  involving  the  big  German  chairman  of  the 
county  board  of  supervisors  and  a  crippled  moron  girl. 

The  county  chairman  threatened  to  kill  me  on  sight. 
A.  H.  Schattenberg,  clerk  of  the  school  board,  warned 
me  of  my  danger  and,  as  it  was  against  the  law  to  carry 
concealed  weapons  he  gave  me  a  hatchet  to  defend  my- 
self with.  I  wore  it  openly  in  a  belt,  and  Judge  Mal- 
lory,  of  the  Municipal  Court,  said  it  was  all  right. 
Julius  Meiswinkel,  clerk  of  the  court,  and  Alvin  Wie- 
bers,  his  assistant,  gave  me  a  duly  signed  permit  to  carry 
a  hatchet  until  I  elected  to  bury  it. 

This  began  to  make  me  a  marked  reporter.  Also  I 
never  walked.  During  the  time  I  was  in  Milwaukee 
I  always  ran  wherever  I  went.  Oftentimes  I  beat  other 
reporters  who  went  in  cabs  and  besides  I  saved  the  cab 
hire. 

The  libeled  person  took  a  new  tack.  He  had  Uncle 
Billy  arrested  for  criminal  libel  and  had  me  arrested  on 
the  same  charge.  It  was  the  first  time  on  record  that 
an  attempt  was  made  to  fasten  such  responsibility  onto 
an  employee.  John  J.  Orton,  the  regular  Cramer, 
Aikens  £  Cramer  attorney,  and  W.  H.  Ebbitts,  a  noted 
criminal  lawyer  of  the  time,  defended  us.  We  were  put 
in  jail  for  a  short  time  for  the  dramatic  effect. 

On  the  very  same  day  a  German  youth  named  Her- 


76  THE  IKON  HUNTER 

man  Hilden  murdered  his  stepfather.  The  Chicago 
Tribune  got  the  thing  mixed.  It  carried  a  Milwaukee 
dispatch  to  the  effect  that  I  was  arrested  for  murder  and 
Hilden  for  criminal  libel.  As  the  Tribune  had  a  large 
circulation  at  LaFayette  my  bad  reputation  thereabouts 
was  further  fortified. 

We  had  the  goods,  so  nothing  came  of  our  prosecution 
except  an  uplift  of  my  local  reputation.  The  Chicago 
Tribune  asked  me  to  take  charge  of  its  Milwaukee  bu- 
reau, which  I  did.  Also  I  got  quite  a  string  of  outside 
papers  and  began  to  make  money  as  I  looked  at  things. 

The  Chicago  Times'  man  in  Milwaukee  —  both  Trib- 
une and  Times  had  Milwaukee  bureaus  then  —  was  a 
booze  fighter  for  fair,  and  I  had  the  good  luck  to  pro- 
tect him  in  his  job  for  quite  a  long  time. 

One  day  Herman  Hilden  broke  jail  with  other  pris- 
oners. John  Rugee,  of  Durr  &  Rugee,  had  become  sher- 
iff. Fat  office  those  times.  He  offered  a  reward  of 
three  hundred  dollars  for  Hilden.  A  clever  girl  friend 
of  mine,  a  telegraph  operator  at  Appleton,  reported  to 
me  that  she  thought  she  had  spotted  Hilden.  I  followed 
up  the  clew,  located  him  and  told  the  Milwaukee  sher- 
iff. I  waived  all  claim  to  the  reward,  but  saw  that  the 
girl  got  her  share. 

My  position  in  the  matter,  which  seemed  to  me  was  a 
simple  one  and  right,  made  me  a  very  lion  for  a  time. 
Sheriff  Rugee  gave  a  big  dinner  for  me  and  presented 
me  with  a  huge,  gold-headed  cane  which  quite  floored 
me.  I  did  not  any  more  know  what  to  do  with  that 
cane  than  I  would  with  an  elephant's  trunk,  if  one  had 
been  tied  to  me.  Its  destiny  was  to  be  broken  over  a 
dog  that  snapped  at  our  first  baby.  At  the  Rugee  din- 
ner it  was  discovered  that  less  than  a  year  before  I  had 
been  a  lumber  piler  in  his  yard,  and  it  made  quite  a  hit. 


I  DKIVE  A  COAL  WAGON  77 

Soon  afterwards  a  big  wholesale  Jew  clothing  house 
was  burned.  John  Black,  assistant  fire  chief,  told  me 
the  owners  had  done  it.  He  took  me  from  floor  to  floor 
and  showed  me  piles  of  kerosened  clothing  that  had  not 
completely  burned.  It  was  a  great  story  and  when  I 
told  Frank  Flower  all  about  it  he  let  it  go.  Of  course, 
it  created  a  tremendous  sensation,  which  was  felt  in  the 
office  as  well  as  outside.  The  owners  started  a  libel 
suit.  It  looked  like  a  bad  fight,  and  while  we  of  the 
city  staff  were  hot  for  it,  our  wealthy  bosses  were  not 
so  keen. 

Two  days  later  occurred  Milwaukee's  greatest  trag- 
edy, the  burning  of  the  Newhall  House  and  one  hundred 
and  eleven  persons.  This  swept  the  boards  of  the  pub- 
lic mind  clear  of  everything,  including  our  threatened 
libel  suit. 

Parenthetically,  the  insurance  on  the  clothing  stock 
was  never  paid. 

The  night  the  Newhall  House  burned  I  was  in  that 
fated  fire  trap  until  after  midnight,  looking  up  inside 
stuff  about  the  failure  of  Dixon  &  Co.,  grocers.  I  can 
see  Tom  Thumb  yet  as  he  reached  up  his  cue  to  his  eyes 
while  playing  billiards.  After  watching  him  for  some 
time  I  left.  All  the  way  home,  for  now  I  was  married, 
I  had  one  of  those  feelings  that  are  unexplainable. 
Gamblers  call  them  hunches.  Spiritualists  call  them 
warnings.  I  was  certain  that  some  big  thing  was  about 
to  happen.  It  was  the  first  time  I  had  sensed  anything 
like  it  enough  to  be  impressed.  The  Newhall  House 
was  a  fire  trap.  Everybody  predicted  it  would  burn. 
I  had  been  in  it  for  some  hours  just  before  and  wander- 
ing through  its  narrow  hallways,  had  dwelt  upon  the 
fire  butts  and  dried  and  wrinkled  reels  of  rotten  hose. 
Maybe  that  had  a  lot  to  do  with  my  feelings. 


78  THE  IKON  HUNTER 

I  lived  on  21st  Street  on  the  West  side  near  Grand 
Avenue,  and  had  reached  the  corner  of  18th  Street  on 
that  stately  thoroughfare.  About  I  faced  and  started 
downtown.  Just  as  I  got  to  16th  Street  a  fire  alarm 
sounded,  quickly  followed  by  a  general  alarm.  It  was 
January.  I  ran  as  swiftly  as  I  could  go  and  just 
reached  the  scene  in  time  to  witness  the  ineffaceable 
spectacle  of  the  jumping  of  waitress  girls  from  their 
sixth-story  attic  rooms  into  the  alley  below.  Some  of 
the  guests  leaped  into  the  telegraph  wires  and  broke 
their  fall.  My  old  employer,  Uncle  Billy  Cramer,  lived 
at  the  Newhall.  I  soon  discovered,  to  my  gladness,  that 
he  had  been  led  out  quite  safely. 

Tom  Thumb  received  injuries  from  which  he  subse- 
quently died.  Billy  Dodsworth,  of  the  American  Ex- 
press Company,  arrived  just  in  time  to  see  two  of  his 
best  friends,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Joslyn,  jump  to  death.  Mr. 
Joslyii  was  prominent  on  'change.  With  his  wife  he  oc- 
cupied the  third  floor  corner  rooms  of  Broadway  and 
Michigan.  Mr.  Dodsworth  had  influenced  them  to  put 
up  a  private  fire  escape,  but  in  their  panic  they  forgot 
it.  I  have  had  and  have  witnessed  a  good  many  tragic 
things  in  my  life  but  nothing  so  appalling  as  the  New- 
hall  holocaust.  The  men  I  saw  dying  at  the  siege  of 
Constantinople  had  a  chance  and  were  not  caught  like 
rats  in  a  trap. 

Jesse  James  was  operating  up  in  Wisconsin  then,  and 
the  Williams  Brothers,  of  Dunn  County,  were  supposed 
to  be  a  part  of  his  gang.  Every  detective  or  would-be 
Vidocq  in  the  West  and  a  lot  from  the  East  had  lurid 
dreams  of  rounding  up  the  James  outfit  or  some  of  it. 
Old  Bill  Beck,  who  had  a  piece  of  his  jaw  shot  off,  leav- 
ing an  ugly,  facial  scar,  was  the  first  chief  of  police  I 
knew  in  Milwaukee.  He  was  a  war  time,  secret  service 


I  DKIVE  A  COAL  WAGON  79 

detective  and  typical.  Under  bis  direction  quite  a  de- 
tective force  incubated.  Some  of  tbeni  were  too  funny 
for  anything  even  then,  but  Janssen  and  Riemer,  Billy 
MeManus,  John  Hannifin,  and  Smith  and  Sheeban  did 
good  work  from  the  first.  John  A.  Hinsey  had  charge 
of  the  Chicago,  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul  Railroad  de- 
tectives with  headquarters  in  Milwaukee.  That  was 
before  the  offices  were  moved  to  Chicago.  Alexander 
Mitchell  and  S.  S.  Merrill  were  directing  the  master- 
ful contest  waged  against  the  Chicago  &  Northwestern 
for  control  in  the  new  Northwest.  William  C.  Van- 
Horne  was  general  superintendent  and  was  making  his 
record  as  a  lieutenant  that  resulted  in  his  being  drafted 
by  the  Canadian  Pacific  promoters.  Fred  Underwood, 
afterwards  president  of  the  Erie,  was  a  brakeman. 
His  home  was  out  at  Wauwatosa,  where  his  father  was  a 
dignified  minister  of  the  gospel.  Tom  Shaughnessy, 
afterwards  Lord  Shaughnessy,  was  dealing  out  candles 
and  wicking  as  a  clerk  in  the  Chicago,  Milwaukee  &  St. 
Paul  Railroad  storehouse,  and  his  father  was  a  faith- 
ful, Third  Ward  policeman,  with  a  brogue  like  over- 
cooked mush. 

James  J.  Hill  and  Donald  Smith,  the  latter  after- 
wards Lord  Strathcona,  were  beginning  to  appear  in 
the  horizon  of  the  Northwest.  The  United  States  had 
just  failed  to  see  and  take  advantage  of  a  chance  to  pur- 
chase nearly  a  million  square  miles  of  Hudson  Bay  Ter- 
ritory, which  would  have  given  us  an  unbroken  domain 
to  the  North  Pole,  including  the  now  famous  hard  wheat 
belt  of  the  North. 

The  vast  Northwest  had  begun  to  sizzle  as  the  fires  of 
settlement  and  commercial  desires  moved  up  to  it.  One 
could  tell  the  story  on  and  on  for  they  were  making  men 
in  Milwaukee  then. 


80  THE  IRON  HUNTEE 

Well,  as  I  was  saying,  all  the  sleuths  were  after  Jesse 
James.  A  deputy  sheriff  named  Jim  Greding  had 
more  imagination  and  less  sense  than  any  one  person  I 
ever  saw.  He  thought  he  was  a  detective.  Laboring 
under  that  delusion  he  did  more  odd  things  than  could 
be  told  in  a  tome.  Once  he  came  to  me  and  told  me  in 
a  whisper  that  would  burst  the  listening  ear  of  Diony- 
sius  in  the  latomia  of  Syracuse,  that  he  had  located  his 
quarry.  I  followed  him  over  to  Grand  Avenue.  He 
stealthily  approached  the  salesroom  of  the  Singer  Sew- 
ing Machine,  where  an  inoffensive  citizen  named  Beach 
was  planning  further  raids  on  the  Wheeler  &  Wilson. 

"  That's  him !  "  said  Jim. 

It  was  hard  to  keep  my  face  straight,  but  I  sicked 
Jim  on  until  Beach  nearly  broke  every  bone  in  his 
body.  This  didn't  feaze  him,  for  one  day  a  rube  named 
William  Kuhl  came  to  town  and  Jim  at  once  marked 
him  for  the  desperado  Loii  Williams.  He  really  got 
Kuhl  into  the  coop  and  finding  a  scar  on  his  toe  that 
tallied  with  Williams,  they  spirited  him  to  Dunn 
County  for  final  identification,  which  was  so  success- 
ful that  it  proved  conclusively  who  he  was  not. 

But  Jim  had  us  all  fooled  for  a  while.  I  had  myself 
locked  up  with  the  pseudo  Lon,  and  so  eager  was  I  to 
believe  Kuhl  to  be  a  villain  for  the  story  there  was  in  it, 
that  I  had  no  difficulty  in  doing  so.  It  was  a  great  les- 
son to  me. 

I  learned  how  easily  one  can  be  misled  in  the  direction 
he  would  like  to  proceed. 


CHAPTEE  VIII 

MAEBIED    ON    CREDIT    I    GIVE     MY    BRIDE    A    FIVE    CENT 

BOUQUET  AND   WE  TAKE  A  WEDDING  TRIP  ON  A 

STREET    CAR 

THE  best  act  of  my  life  was  performed  in  Milwau- 
kee when  I  fell  in  love  and  married.     I  do  not 
know  how  any  one  could  be  more  deeply  in  love 
than  I  was,  unless  I  am  now,  and  I  think  I  am.     My 
sweetheart  was  seventeen  and  I  was  twenty.     I  was 
refused  a  marriage  license  on  this  account.     The  mo- 
ment we  became  of  age  I  secured  the  license  and  we  were 
married  by  the  Reverend  F.  L.   Stein,  pastor  of  the 
Grand  Avenue  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  in  the  par- 
lors of  his  parsonage,  Saturday  evening,  May  7,  1881. 

I  gave  my  bride  a  five  cent  bouquet  from  the  German 
market,  paid  the  preacher  two  dollars  down  and  three 
dollars  on  the  installment  plan  and  paid  Gluck,  the 
tailor,  for  my  wedding  suit  in  the  same  way. 

We  joyously  took  our  bridal  tour  on  one  of  Washing- 
ton Becker's  street  cars  drawn  by  horses,  and  spent  the 
evening  with  Observer  Mueller  of  the  United  States 
Weather  Bureau  and  Mrs.  Mueller. 

If  any  bridegroom  was  ever  happier  before  or  since 
it  is  because  of  his  greater  capacity  for  emotion.  I  had 
wedded  the  most  beautiful  and  the  bravest  girl  in  the 
world,  and  I  know  this  now  better  than  I  thought  it 
then.  There  never  has  been  a  time  in  African  jungle 
or  any  other  place  demanding  courage,  when  my  wife 
has  not  been  the  braver  of  the  two. 

SI 


82  THE  IKON  HUNTER 

I  made  many  friends,  and  one  of  the  dear  ones,  Col- 
onel J.  A.  Watrous,  was  directly  responsible  for  my  go- 
ing to  Florence  as  told  in  a  previous  chapter.  My  char- 
acter began  to  take  form  in  Northern  Wisconsin.  I 
wished  to  provide  for  my  wife  and  family  and  be  a  good 
husband  and  citizen.  That  was  an  undertaking  big 
enough.  Conditions  at  once  compelled  me  to  make  a 
decision  between  the  outlaws  and  the  little  Presbyterian 
Church.  At  that  time  I  did  not  formally  join  the 
church,  but  I  did  enlist  for  the  aims  of  the  church.  It 
is  nearly  true  but  not  quite  exactly  the  case  that  it  was 
put  up  to  me  to  be  a  horse  thief  or  a  Presbyterian,  and 
I  chose  to  be  the  latter. 

At  Florence  I  had  my  first  real  initiation  into  the 
politics  of  the  times.  Hiram  Damon  Fisher,  a  good- 
hearted,  canny  Green  Mountaineer,  born  at  Vergennes, 
Vermont,  was  the  big  man  of  the  place  in  everything. 
He  was  the  discoverer  of  the  adjacent  iron  mine  that 
made  the  town  possible. 

Mr.  Fisher  had  "  entered  "  from  the  Government  most 
of  the  environal  land  to  the  extent  of  thousands  of  acres. 
His  plan  was  to  secure  the  minutes  (descriptions)  and 
take  them  to  the  capitalists  to  be  purchased  from  the 
public  domain  at  one  dollar  arid  twenty-five  cents  an 
acre.  Generally  one  quarter  interest,  but  sometimes 
only  one-eighth  and  infrequently  three-eighths  would  be 
given  the  cruiser,  or  whatever  person  supplied  the 
chance.  In  this  manner  much  of  the  best  of  the  valu- 
able public  domain  fell  into  a  few  hands. 

All  sorts  of  things  had  fallen  to  the  lot  of  the  father 
of  Florence  before  he  got  his  start.  He  was  a  sailor 
on  Lake  Winnebago  and  Fox  River,  connecting  that 
water  with  Green  Bay,  where  his  finer  character  was 
shown  by  saying  "  jeeswax  "  instead  of  the  profanity 


A  WEDDING  TKIP  ON  A  STREET  CAR     83 

that  was  more  plentifully  charged  with  haemoglobin. 

Book  peddling  carried  him  into  insurance,  and  while 
thus  engaged  he  met  Emily,  the  beautiful  daughter  of 
Joseph  Keyes,  one  of  the  pioneers  of  Wisconsin. 

Boss  Keyes,  a  son  of  Joseph,  was  a  political  power 
and  for  a  long  period  dominated  in  Wisconsin. 

Joseph  Keyes  came  to  be  registrar  of  the  United 
States  land  office  at  Menasha.  Young  Fisher  got  into 
the  atmosphere  of  the  office  instinctively,  as  well  as  into 
the  good  graces  of  the  majestic  daughter. 

He  camped  at  the  Keyes.  Woods  cruisers  would 
come  in  with  the  information  gathered  after  long  and 
adventurous  trips.  Oftentimes  they  were  only  con- 
cerned with  certain  specified  parcels  of  land,  but  in 
going  to  or  from  that  location  they  would  incidentally 
gather  much  information  about  timber,  rocks,  soil,  fur, 
game,  Indians  and  what  not.  Very  often  they  would 
race  with  other  woodsmen  for  some  rich  stake,  nearly 
always  pine  timber.  Thrilling  canoe  trips  in  summer 
and  great  hikes  on  snow  shoes  trailing  toboggans  in 
winter  were  common. 

The  time  Charley  LaSalle  lost  his  trapping  "  pard- 
ner"  up  on  Lac  Vieux  Desert  in  the  middle  of  the 
winter  and  froze  the  corpse  until  spring,  when  he  pain- 
fully and  laboriously  trudged  out  with  it  for  some  hun- 
dreds of  miles,  was  a  chiefer  tale,  and  the  fellow  who 
did  not  know  all  about  it  was  the  worst  of  lob-gobs  — 
tenderfeet. 

When  these  couriers  du  bois  were  at  the  land  office, 
and  some  of  them  were  there  every  day,  Damon  Fisher 
would  cultivate  them.  A  drink  here,  or  a  plug  of  to- 
bacco or  a  present  of  a  pipe  and  the  jolly  young  Yankee 
was  their  bosom  friend. 

Then  they  would  tell  him  everything,  even  the  se- 


84  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

crets  they  hoped  to  capitalize  in  the  nebulous  some  day. 
In  this  manner  he  learned  of  places  where  the  compass 
would  turn  a  complete  circle  because  the  magnetic  at- 
traction was  so  strong. 

Every  little  while  a  cruiser  from  the  Lake  Superior 
region  would  fish  out  of  his  pockets  a  specimen.  Nearly 
all  of  them  knew  iron  ore  when  they  saw  it.  They  were 
not  very  good  judges  of  percentages  of  metallic  iron, 
but  that  was  relatively  unimportant.  Sometimes  they 
would  have  jasper  and  at  other  times  lean  magnetite, 
resembling  what  they  had  known  as  loadstone. 

One  day  a  cruiser  showed  Fisher  a  small  piece  of 
sparkling  specular  hematite.  That  settled  it.  He  had 
married  Miss  Keyes,  but  that  did  not  prevent  his  de- 
cision. The  woods  were  a  terra  incognita  to  him,  so 
he  interested  George  Keyes,  who  was  a  cousin  of  his 
wife,  and  a  good  woodsman  named  Nelson  Halsey. 

This  trio  made  trip  after  trip  up  into  the  wilds. 
They  could  go  as  far  as  Green  Bay  by  rail,  and  then 
they  had  to  attack  the  brush.  Each  man  carried  a  pack. 
They  took  a  light  cotton  tent,  one  blanket  apiece,  frying 
pan,  tin  tea  pail,  three  tin  cups,  knives  and  forks  some- 
times, plenty  of  flour  and  pork,  tea  and  salt.  No  sugar ; 
no  luxuries.  Their  food  range  was  as  important  as  a 
seafighter's  coaling  radius  is. 

Tea,  grill ades  and  galette  for  breakfast  and  supper, 
and  cold  dough-god  for  lunch  made  up  the  woods  fare 
of  all  who  deserved  the  name  of  cruiser.  It  was  wear- 
ing upon  the  young  prospector's  bank  account,  which 
had  not  been  a  big  one  to  start  with. 

There  was  a  lonely  wife  and  baby  in  a  little  cottage 
in  Menasha.  Fisher  just  would  not  give  up.  He  ex- 
hausted his  means  so  completely  that  he  would  borrow 
five  dollars  to  buy  flour  with,  arid  when  pressed  would 


A  WEDDING  TRIP  ON  A  STEEET  CAR     85 

borrow  of  another  in  order  to  pay  the  original  loan. 

In  this  way  of  high  finance  he  kept  himself  and  his 
little  crew  in  the  woods.  But  there  must  be  success  or 
an  end  to  it  all.  Anybody  who  ever  had  confidence  in 
him  had  lost  it. 

So  it  came  to  the  third  mid-summer's  prospecting. 
Halsey  and  Keyes  were  looking  for  a  corner  in  order  to 
locate  themselves.  They  were  in  a  dense  cedar  swamp 
between  two  small  lakes.  Fisher  wandered  about  quite 
aimlessly  and  got  away  from  his  men.  Coming  to  the 
edge  of  the  swamp  he  climbed  a  hill,  so  that  he  might 
get  a  birds'eye  view  of  the  country  if  possible.  But  it 
was  too  thickly  timbered  at  the  hilltop.  Then  he  hal- 
looed to  his  men.  No  answer. 

"  Lost !  by  jeeswax,"  he  soliloquized. 

He  sat  down  and  took  out  his  small  exploring  pick. 
Sticking  it  in  the  ground  at  haphazard,  as  one  would 
idly  play  mumbletypeg  alone,  he  pulled  it  out  and  be- 
hold !  The  point  was  red. 

He  had  stuck  it  into  hematite  just  beneath  the  leaf- 
mold.  Feverishly  he  scraped  away  the  leaves  and  plied 
the  little  pick.  There  was  iron  ore. 

Restoring  the  original  appearance  Fisher's  next  task 
was  to  find  his  men  or  have  them  find  him.  The  work 
of  anxious  months  was  at  an  end. 

Thus  was  discovered  the  Menominee  Iron  Range. 

Not  even  telling  Halsey  and  Keyes  when  they  came 
together,  Fisher  started  for  Menasha  just  as  soon  as 
he  was  certain  of  the  section  his  find  was  on.  The  land 
was  entered.  More  weary  years  ensued  before  John 
H.  Van  Dyke  and  Albert  Conro  of  Milwaukee,  and  A. 
C.  Brown  of  Marinette,  and  Henry  Pattern  of  Menasha 
and  other  rich  bankers  were  interested. 

The  railroad  followed,  and  then  development  and 


86  THE  IKON  HUNTEK 

riches.  To  secure  all  this  Fisher  had  to  give  up  to 
capital  three-fourths  of  his  discovery. 

Two  lakes  may  be  seen  from  the  denuded  crest  of 
Florence  Mine  hill.  The  one  to  the  southwest  is  called 
Keyes  and  the  nearer  one,  which  is  southeast,  is  called 
Fisher.  On  the  banks  of  the  latter,  in  a  beautiful  lo- 
cation, is  the  mining  village  of  Florence,  named  for 
Mrs.  N.  P.  Hulst,  of  Milwaukee. 

It  was  Mr.  Fisher  who  came  to  have  a  drag  on  the 
town  weekly,  as  a  quite  common  result  of  loaning  to  it 
small  sums  of  money.  I  went  north  in  response  to  a 
wire  from  him  to  Colonel  Watrous.  The  Colonel,  a 
most  generous  and  brave  man,  saw  me  climbing  the 
stairs  of  the  Wisconsin  building  with  a  series  of  jumps. 
Peck's  Sun  was  on  one  floor  and  the  Sunday  Telegraph, 
published  by  Calkins  &  Watrous,  on  another. 

He  asked  me  if  I  would  like  to  go  into  business  for 
myself. 

I  answered,  "  You  bet !  "  without  a  moment's  thought 
of  capital. 

That  was  four  o'clock,  P.  M.  I  left  on  the  six  o'clock 
train,  two  hours  later,  and  did  not  return.  Mr.  Fisher 
asked  me  how  much  money  I  had.  I  told  him  eighty 
dollars.  He  asked  me  how  much  I  could  raise.  I  told 
him  all  that  was  necessary. 

"  Where  ?  "  he  queried. 

"  You,"  I  replied. 

"  All  right,"  he  said. 

I  signed  notes  for  two  thousand,  five  hundred  dol- 
lars, at  ten  per  cent.,  all  to  be  paid  in  a  year. 

It  took  sixty  dollars  of  my  eighty  dollars  to  bring 
up  my  wife  and  babe  and  our  scant  household  truck. 
I  did  not  know  there  was  a  great  depression  in  iron, 
and  that  the  mine  was  idle.  A  small  force  was  working 


A  WEDDING  TRIP  ON  A  STREET  CAR     87 

two  miles  away  at  Commonwealth.  There  was  some 
lumbering.  Over  the  Michigan  line  there  was  a  good 
deal  of  exploring  in  the  region  of  Tobin  Lake,  and  along 
the  Paint  and  Iron  rivers,  where  the  towns  of  Crystal 
Falls  and  Iron  River  were  just  starting.  Small  mines 
had  opened  at  the  Delphic  and  Mastodon  locations. 

Edward  Breitung,  of  Negaunee,  was  doing  some  work 
at  the  lower  Pine  River  falls,  and  Angus  Smith,  of 
Milwaukee,  had  an  exploring  crew  on  the  Menominee, 
near  Bad  Water  Indian  village.  The  Lake  Elwood  sec- 
tion, between  Spread  Eagle  and  Pine  River,  was  also 
attracting  attention.  Norway,  Quinnesec  and  Iron 
Mountain  were  flourishing  new  towns.  Keel  Ridge 
mine  had  caved  in  and  killed  a  number  of  men,  the 
first  big  tragedy  of  the  range. 

The  Breens  and  others  had  done  some  work  in  the 
vicinity  of  Waucedah,  which  had  been  abandoned  as 
beyond  the  extension  of  the  productive  iron  formation. 
There  was  much  excitement  in  the  Metropolitan  and 
Felch  mountain  regions  and  the  Chicago  &  Northwest- 
ern built  a  branch  in  from  Narenta,  but  the  ore  bodies 
turned  out  to  be  a  shallow  blanket,  and  large  sums  of 
money  were  lost. 

To  say  that  I  worked  night  and  day  is  the  only  de- 
scription of  my  activity.  I  loved  the  wild  new  country. 
It  brought  into  play  everything  that  a  soul  and  mind 
and  body  possesses.  Nearly  all  the  pioneers  were 
young.  The  pace  demanded  youth.  Jim  Knight  had  a 
paper  at  Norway.  I  think  they  called  it  the  Chronicle 
then ;  now  his  paper  is  the  Current.  Boulders  Bennett 
was  a  feature  of  it. 

Jim  Russell,  then  a  bellicose  tyro,  since  become  an 
able  and  dignified  penologist,  had  just  joined  A.  P. 
Swineford  in  the  Marqueite  Mining  Journal.  George 


88  THE  IKON  HUNTER 

Newett,  always  a  man  and  now  famous  for  his  tilt  with 
Colonel  Roosevelt,  ran  the  Iron  Agitator  —  now  Iron 
Ore,  at  Ishpeming.  C.  G.  Griffey  was  plugging  away 
with  the  Negaunee  Iron  Herald. 

A  fine  fellow  named  Devereux  seemed  out  of  the 
world  with  the  Portage  Lake  Mining  Gazette  at  Hough- 
ton,  and  he  gave  it  a  tone  that  was  high  and  distinctive. 

Fred  McKenzie  was  at  Calumet,  where  he  had  a  pos- 
ter affair  much  like  his  own  pudgy  self.  Alfred  Meads, 
father  of  them  all  and  a  credit  to  everything  he  con- 
tacted, was  the  pioneer  publisher  of  the  Ontonagon 
Miner. 

Colonel  Van  Dnzer,  a  veteran  of  Sherman's  army, 
published  the  Escanaba  Iron  Port,  and  the  way  the 
splendid  old  hero  "  marched  to  the  sea  "  every  issue 
was  good  for  contemplation. 

I  have  mentioned  this  press  personnel  because  these 
men  had  more  to  do  with  developing  the  social  and  civic 
structure  in  their  respective  communities,  that  were  in 
turn  interwoven,  than  all  the  acquisitors  whatsoever. 
Every  one  of  them  waged  a  battle  for  equality  and  de- 
cency every  minute  and  it  was  a  prideful  thing  to  know 
them. 

The  Mining  Journal,  of  Marquette,  and  the  Green 
Bay  Advocate  just  about  controlled  things  in  the  new 
field  I  had  entered.  It  was  my  business  to  drive  them 
out,  which  I  did.  I  could  do  it  only  by  appealing  to 
local  loyalty  and  meeting  their  competition.  I  started 
departments  in  my  paper  for  Iron  River  and  Crystal 
Falls  and  at  last,  when  forced,  I  printed  papers  for  these 
towns,  that  were  set  up  and  run  off  at  Florence. 


CHAPTER  IX 

I  UNDERTAKE  THE  STUDY  OF  IRON  ORE  AND  ENGAGE 
IN  EXPLORATION  AND  PROSPECTING 

MY  newspaper  work  and  its  involvements  did  not 
give  me  enough  to  do  so  I  began  a  systematic 
study  of  iron  ore  exploration  in  all  of  its  prac- 
tical and  scientific  phases,  an  enjoyable  life's  work 
which  I  still  keep  up  and  which  has  attracted  me  to 
every  country  in  the  world.  Woodcraft  and  surveying 
are  as  necessary  as  anything  else  in  a  new  country. 
The  government  survey  of  Northern  Michigan  and 
Wisconsin  was  made  between  1850  and  1860.  Mostly 
it  was  well  done  but  not  always.  Townships  six  miles 
square  were  measured  off  north  and  south  from  an  ar- 
bitrary base  line  and  east  and  west  from  a  range  or 
meridian  line.  These  townships  were  subdivided  into 
thirty-six  sections  one  mile  square,  and  the  sections  were 
quartered;  later  to  be  divided  into  forty-acre  lots  by 
county  surveyors.  The  section  corners  and  the  points 
midway  between  them,  quarter  stakes,  were  marked. 
Great  care  was  given  to  marking  the  section  corner. 
Whether  the  monument  was  a  cedar  stake,  or  of  some- 
thing else,  charcoal  was  buried  at  its  base.  Then  bear- 
ing or  witness  trees,  four  when  possible,  were  gouged 
with  the  legend  of  the  location.  Accurate  location  by 
distance  and  direction  was  made  on  the  field  notes.  Ob- 
servations of  topography  and  geology  were  also  written 
on  the  field  notes,  making  them  very  valuable.  The 

89 


90  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

government  survey  by  the  United  States  is  a  creditable 
public  achievement. 

It  was  impossible  to  survey  the  magnetic  fields  in  the 
region  of  Lake  Superior  with  an  ordinary  compass. 
Necessity  thus  led  to  the  contrivance  of  Burt's  solar 
compass  which  has  been  developed  now  into  the  dial 
compass,  a  still  more  useful  instrument. 

It  was  a  memorable  day  when  Mr.  Fisher,  at  my  re- 
quest, took  me  into  the  woods  and  showed  me  for  the 
first  time  an  unmarred  section  corner  and  three  wit- 
ness trees.  Another  lesson  was  to  walk  along  the  section 
line  two  thousand  paces  to  the  next  corner,  locating  the 
quarter  stake  enroute.  I  held  a  compass  straight  in 
front  of  my  body,  waist  high,  as  I  took  sights  along  the 
line. 

At  noon  we  had  a  bouillon  made  of  a  pileated  wood- 
pecker. I  had  never  before  seen  this  beautiful  bird. 
Mr.  Fisher  called  it  a  wood  cock  and  informed  me  that 
it  was  a  fine  game  bird.  It  is  just  as  good  to  eat  as 
any  woodpecker  and  no  better.  They  are  rapidly  dis- 
appearing and  are  even  more  scarce  than  their  southern 
rival,  the  ivory  bill.  I  have  never  permitted  the  killing 
of  one  since  that  day  except  for  alleged  scientific  pur- 
poses, and  not  many  with  that  now  poor  excuse. 

By  evening  Mr.  Fisher  said  he  could  teach  me  no 
more ;  that  all  the  rest  of  it  would  have  to  come  by  the 
experience  that  would  attend  keeping  at  it. 

The  Gogebic  and  Mesaba  ranges  and  their  extensions 
were  little  known  and  undeveloped.  Charles  Wrifrht, 
geologist,  had  made  what  is  yet  the  best  map  of  the  Me- 
nominee  range. 

The  Brotherton  boys,  of  Escanaba,  doing  the  practical 
work,  and  John  M.  Longyear,  the  clerical,  for  the  Lake 
Superior  Ship  Canal  Railway  &  Iron  Company,  had 


THE  STUDY  OF  IKON  ORE  91 

made  valuable  land  grant  selections  along  what  has  been 
developed  since  as  the  Gogebic  range.  While  doing  this 
work  Mr.  Longyear  laid  the  foundation  for  his  great 
fortune  by  securing  money  backing  and  taking  up  lands 
adjoining,  utilizing  the  Brotherton  information  for  the 
purpose  and  obtaining  a  quarter  interest  in  everything 
thus  entered. 

The  entire  Lake  Superior  country  was  overrun  by 
agents  of  rapacious  interests  of  one  kind  or  another. 
Homesteaders  were  struggling  for  a  share  with  no  inten- 
tion of  making  a  home.  Unearned  land  grants  were 
being  fought  for.  It  was  a  Golcouda  and  greed  was 
after  the  diamonds.  Beneath  it  all  was  a  current  flow- 
ing that  was  certain  to  purify  everything.  One  had  but 
to  glance  below  the  murky  surface  of  the  present. 

Before  I  left  Florence  N.  I).  Moore  and  others  were 
working  in  the  Gogebic  region  and  with  the  coming  of 
the  railroad  the  Colby  mine  was  opened. 

My  first  year  at  Florence  witnessed  the  payment  for 
the  little  paper.  Three  years  more  of  work  there 
brought  more  than  a  living  so  that  when  I  sold  out  early 
in  1887  I  had  nearly  ten  thousand  dollars  and  the  world 
by  the  tail. 

Mr.  Fisher,  egged  on  by  Boss  Keyes  and  a  natural 
tendency,  took  part  in  all  the  politics  from  the  township 
"  corkis  "  to  the  state  convention.  In  fact,  he  was  the 
political  entity  of  the  county  and  aspired  to  go  to  the 
legislature  some  day.  In  order  to  facilitate  this  and  de- 
fine more  clearly  his  realm,  he  had  Florence  County 
cut  out  of  Marinette  and  erected. 

When  there  was  any  kind  of  a  convention  he  would 
send  for  me  and  we  would  together  write  out  a  list  of 
names  of  delegates,  issue  their  credentials  and  sign 
them,  and  that  was  all  there  was  to  it.  I  have  no  idea 


92  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

that  I  would  have  been  consulted  if  it  had  not  been 
necessary  to  have  some  one  sign  as  secretary  of  the  con- 
vention that  was  never  held. 

At  first  I  thought  it  was  a  trifle  irregular,  but  as  I 
did  not  know  anything  about  the  proper  form,  a  brief 
conversation  with  the  well-intending  local  boss  caused 
me  to  have  no  qualms;  and,  in  fact,  I  am  certain  that 
Mr.  Fisher  was  conscientious  in  also  believing  it  to 
be  all  right.  They  all  did  that  way,  he  told  me.  The 
candidature  for  congress  of  Mr.  Isaac  Stephenson,  a 
Nova  Scotian  lumberman  at  Marinette,  reputed  to  be 
nearly  a  millionaire  at  a  time  when  those  common- 
places were  uncommon,  was  announced.  His  district 
was  the  Ninth  Wisconsin.  Sounds  like  a  military  com- 
pany, does  it  not?  It  included  Florence  County.  We 
were  entitled  to  two  delegates  and  whom  else  could  we 
appoint  but  ourselves  ?  There  was  no  other  thought 
in  our  minds  even  if  others  might  have  had  them. 

Soon  after  our  popular  selection  as  delegates  a  most 
confounding  thing  occurred  that  stumped  me  com- 
pletely for  a  while.  Mr.  A.  C.  Brown,  of  Marinette, 
a  lumbering  partner  of  Mr.  Stephenson,  came  to  Flor- 
ence and  actually  called  on  me.  I  was  boyishly  glad  to 
be  recognized  by  Mr.  Brown,  who  really  was  a  fine 
gentleman  and  rich.  My  legs  were  almost  removed 
from  perpendicular  connection  with  my  body  when  he 
pulled  out  a  fifty  dollar  bill  and  handed  it  to  me.  I 
had  never  seen  one  before  and  my  first  idea  was  that  it 
might  be  a  millionaire's  calling  card,  indicating  his 
status,  and  only  to  be  taken  and  returned.  So  I  took  it 
and  searched  it  minutely  and  then  offered  to  give  it 
back.  He  waved  it  aside  with  an  imperious  smile,  as  if 
to  convey  that  he  had  more  of  them  than  could  be  loaded 
into  one  of  his  Brule  River  batteaux. 


THE  STUDY  OF  IRON  ORE  93 

"  But  what  is  it  for  ?  "  I  asked. 

He  seemed  stuck  for  a  second  and  then  replied,  "  For 
subscription  to  the  Mining  News." 

And  I  thought  it  was ;  cross  my  heart.  So  I  ran  over 
in  my  mind  how  long  Mr.  Brown  would  have  paid  in 
advance  at  two  dollars  and  fifty  cents  a  year,  or  whether 
he  might  not  wish  it  to  be  divided  among  names  he 
would  furnish? 

It  made  no  difference  to  him,  he  said,  and  after 
visiting  a  while  he  got  up  to  go,  remarking  that  he  would 
see  me  at  the  convention  where  we  would  be  certain 
to  land  Stephenson  all  right. 

I  was  also  certain,  because  Boss  Keyes  was  for  Ste- 
phenson ;  A.  C.  Brown  was  for  Stephenson ;  Stephenson 
was  for  Stephenson ;  Mr.  Fisher  was  for  Stephenson, 
and  whom  else  could  I  be  for,  and  I  did  not  know  the 
other  fellow  if  there  was  one. 

There  was  no  need  of  scattering  money  all  over  the 
district  the  way  they  did,  except  for  the  observation  of 
the  same  good  form  that  makes  a  fellow  set  'em  up  again 
who  has  had  a  drink  with  some  one  buying  for  a  bar- 
room crowd.  And  yet  the  money  smoothed  the  way  to 
Congress  for  Uncle  Ike  just  as  he  iced  logging  roads, 
or  as  a  ship's  ways  are  greased  before  launching. 

Before  I  left  Florence  a  revolution  against  the  pre- 
vailing political  methods  occurred  and  conventions  and 
caucuses  were  really  held,  but  a  few  interested  persons 
pulled  the  strings  and  manipulated  things  just  the  same. 


CHAPTER  X 

MY   FIRST   TRIP   INTO    THE    TRACKLESS    WILDS    OF 
UNEXPLORED    CANADA 

ISOLD  out  to  advantage  at  Florence  and  moved 
back  to  Milwaukee  and  took  a  position  as  city 
editor  of  the  Sentinel.  Together  with  Harry  My-. 
rick,  Mel  Hoyt,  Henry  Legler,  Sandy  Dingwall,  Curt 
Treat  and  Will  Anderson,  all  newspaper  men,  I  started 
a  trade  paper  called  the  Miner  and  Manufacturer,  which 
we  had  King  &  Fowle  print. 

The  Gogebic  range  was  booming.  Milwaukee  went 
iron  mad.  Iron  mine  stocks  were  traded  in  by  the  pub- 
lic speculatively  for  the  first  time  in  America  in  1887. 
As  usual  fortunes  were  made  and  lost,  and  the  start 
was  made  of  many  spectacular  careers,  such  as  that  of 
Ferdinand  Schlesinger,  that  took  even  banks  up  and 
down. 

I  had  a  few  stocks  and  sold  them,  but  did  not  buy  any 
nor  speculate.  It  got  to  be  noised  around  that  I  was 
an  expert  iron  ore  man.  This  was  based  on  the  fact 
that  I  had  been  underground  in  nearly  every  mine  and 
exploration  in  the  Lake  Superior  ranges,  and  had  writ- 
ten mining  dope  that  was  given  wide  publicity.  I  did 
not  intend  to  pose  as  an  expert.  In  fact,  iron  ore  ex- 
ploration was  then  done  by  guess  and  b'gosh  by  the  best 
of  them.  No  one  person  seemed  to  be  able  to  see  much 
farther  into  the  ground  than  another. 

Anyhow,  I  was  consulted  and  I  think  I  was  honest. 

94 


THE  TEACKLESS  WILDS  OF  CANADA     95 

One  day  a  man  came  to  me  and  told  me  a  syndicate  of 
Milwaukee  and  Chicago  men  had  been  formed  to  make 
some  examinations  of  the  Echo  Lake  region  of  Canada, 
and  he  asked  me  if  I  would  take  charge  of  them.  I 
had  no  more  idea  where  Echo  Lake  was  than  the  man 
in  the  moon.  We  did  not  discuss  that,  but  came  to 
terms  upon  the  general  proposition,  and  I  engaged  to  go. 
My  pay  was  five  hundred  dollars  a  month  and  expenses, 
and  I  was  to  have  a  quarter  interest  in  anything  I  found 
worth  taking  hold  of.  If  I  had  asked  any  less  during 
that  boom  they  would  not  have  thought  me  an  expert 
at  all,  and  as  it  was  they  thought  I  was  too  cheap,  as  I 
afterwards  learned.  As  for  myself,  I  was  in  much 
doubt  of  my  ability  to  earn  my  wages.  But  I  did  and 
more. 

Four  active  years  in  the  woods  of  the  Menominee 
range,  during  which  I  had  repeatedly  visited  and  stud- 
ied explorations  and  formations  from  one  end  of  the 
range  to  the  other,  had  given  me  something.  The 
woods  had  loaned  to  me  some  of  their  secret  craft,  and 
the  lakes  and  rivers  had  yielded  experience  in  rowing, 
paddling,  poling  and  sailing. 

I  was  somewhat  equipped  for  work  in  the  wild  coun- 
try that  my  quest  was  partially  to  introduce  me  to.  I 
had  walked  from  Lac  Vieux  Desert  to  Lake  Superior 
and  had  interested  Milwaukee  acquaintances  in  entering 
several  thousands  of  acres  of  copper  lands,  covered  with 
good  hardwood  and  scattering  pine  between  the  Black 
and  Presque  Isle  rivers.  On  that  cruise  I  had  a  pack 
of  eighty  pounds  and  wore  my  improper  footwear  down 
to  sore  and  bleeding  feet. 

The  geography  of  Echo  Lake  locates  that  beautiful 
mountain-shored  basin  in  Canada,  between  Sault  Ste. 
Marie  and  the  mouth  of  St.  Mary's  Straits.  Its  inlet 


96  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

comes  down  from  between  the  Garden  and  the  Abina- 
dong  and  its  outlet  debouches  into  Big  Lake  George,  on 
the  old  channel  east  of  Sugar  Island,  called  a  long  time 
ago  St.  George's  Island.  I  was  instructed  to  start  in 
there  and  follow  up  any  leads  I  might  get  as  to  iron 
ore  and  likely  formations.  No  railroad  reached  Sault 
Ste.  Marie.  To  reach  that  classic  town,  older  than 
Plymouth  Rock  settlement,  one  took  stage  in  winter  and 
boat  in  summer.  It  was  to  me  a  passage  into  paradise. 
I  had  never  breathed  such  air  nor  drunk  such  water. 
Pure  as  nature  was  the  entire  Northland. 

At  Crystal  Falls  I  had  known  a  temperamental  pigmy 
named  Fay  G.  Clark,  who  was  known  as  Racketty  Clark 
by  his  woods  acquaintances.  I  asked  a  Canadian 
French  woodsman  one  day  why  they  called  him  "  Rack- 
etty," and  he  knew : 

"  Cause  she  hant  pak  rite  in  her  'ead,  maybe." 

Racketty  had  gone  into  the  Sault  country  the  year 
before  and  finding  that  nearly  every  Indian  had  speci- 
mens of  iron  ore  he  sent  out  wild  stories  that  were  taken 
hold  of  at  once  that  wildest  year.  He  wrote  interest- 
ingly and  convincingly  to  one  who  wished  to  be  con- 
vinced. 

I  searched  him  out  and  found  him  the  evening  I  ar- 
rived at  the  Sault  eating  a  big  brook  trout  at  Mother 
Churchill's  restaurant.  He  told  me  at  once  about  kill- 
ing the  trout  at  the  Little  Rapids  just  below  the  Sault. 
It  weighed  more  than  five  pounds  according  to  his  tell, 
and  he  could  not  decide  which  was  the  better;  such  a 
trout  or  the  iridescent,  sweet  and  hardmeated  whitefish, 
that  the  Indian  descendants  of  the  old  Bawittiwiniwags 
scooped  out  of  the  rapids. 

Now  and  then  a  bone  would  shuck  out  of  the  corner 
of  Racketty's  mouth,  which  was  a  perfect  boning  ma- 


THE  TRACKLESS  WILDS  OF  CANADA     97 

chine.  He  told  me  much  about  the  Sault  as  he  ate  and 
ate:  about  Gizhe  Manido  and  how  that  Indian  deity 
had  pursued  the  great  beaver,  father  of  all  the  beavers, 
first  out  of  his  dam  at  the  Little  Rapids  and  then  out 
of  his  main  dam  at  the  big  Sault,  destroying  them  par- 
tially and  thus  forming  St.  Mary's  Falls. 

When  he  finished  I  engaged  him  to  go  into  the  Cana- 
dian wilderness  with  me.  I  directed  him  procure  as 
good  an  Indian  as  he  could  find  and  one  just  as  old  as 
he  could  be  and  handle  himself.  It  was  desirable  to 
have  as  much  cumulative  redman  lore  as  one  individual 
could  hold. 

We  spent  the  entire  summer  along  the  massive  ranges 
that  lie  between  the  Georgian  Bay  arm  of  Lake  Huron 
and  Batchewanna  Bay,  Lake  Superior.  I  found  a 
strong  iron  formation  clear  across.  Now  and  then  it 
was  cut  off  by  extensive  igneous  flows.  It  was  easy  to 
connect  roughly  the  sedimentary  zones  containing  fer- 
ruginous quartzite,  marble,  limestone  and  porphyry 
with  boundaries  of  pegmatite,  granite  gneiss,  syenite, 
norite,  diorite,  diabase,  basalt  and  other  fire  rocks. 

Quite  often  we  found  good  float  ore,  mostly  a  semi- 
specular  hard  hematite.  I  thought  it  ought  to  outcrop, 
but  could  not  find  where.  Up  and  down  mountains, 
through  swamps  of  spruce  and  tamarac,  along  stream 
valleys  and  around  lakes,  tramping  and  eating  our  gril- 
lades  and  galette  as  we  drank  copiously  of  bitter  boiled 
tea,  we  spent  a  wonderful  season  until  the  snow  came 
and  drove  us  out,  because  one  cannot  prospect  the  sur- 
face when  the  snow  covers  everything. 

I  carried  a  pack  that  weighed  something  over  ninety 
pounds  at  the  start;  the  Indian's  weighed  exactly  one 
hundred  and  eight  pounds  and  Racketty's  sixty-five 
pounds.  We  used  from  Minabog's  first  because  it  was 


98  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

heaviest.  Our  packs  were  not  bags  but  pack  sheets  of 
awning  cloth  made  up  with  tump  line  or  misery  strap 
in  Ojibway  Indian  fashion. 

We  carried  no  tent,  so  that  we  could  increase  our  sup^ 
ply  of  pork  and  flour  to  the  limit,  and  nothing  else  but 
salt  and  tea.  No  firearm,  not  even  a  revolver,  was  per- 
mitted to  take  the  place  of  grub.  A  trolling  hook  and 
line  that  we  whirled  and  threw  from  the  bank  of  a  lake 
almost  always  won  a  walleyed  pike.  Many  of  the 
streams  had  brook  troiit.  We  cooked  the  fish  by  run- 
ning a  stick  through  the  body  from  mouth  to  tail  and 
placing  it  perpendicularly  before  the  fire,  giving  it  a 
twist  now  and  then  to  expose  all  sides.  If  the  fish  had 
scales  they  would  easily  come  off  with  the  skin  when 
cooked.  As  for  the  viscera  it  dried  up  in  a  ball  and 
practically  fell  out  when  the  fish  was  opened. 

For  fruit  we  had  nothing  except  a  few  wintergreen 
berries  that  are  horribly  lacking  in  acid,  until  other  ber- 
ries would  ripen.  Then  our  craving  for  something  sour 
would  be  satisfied  with  luscious  shadberries  and  blue- 
berries such  as  do  not  grow  elsewhere.  Sometimes 
we  mixed  the  plentiful  Labrador  tea  (ledum  palustre) 
with  our  tea  to  make  it  go  farther  and  once  a  week  we 
made  tea  of  the  tender  tips  of  the  spruce,  a  perfect 
antiscorbutic.  Best  of  all,  late  in  the  season,  were  the 
high  bush  cranberries  (viburnam  opulus  or  guelder 
rose)  that  were  very  sour  and  juicy  and  clung  to  the 
bush  tenaciously. 

At  night  if  it  were  clear  we  would  not  bother  with  a 
covering,  but  would  roll  up  in  our  blankets  and  perhaps 
pull  over  a  pack  sheet,  ample  and  practically  water- 
proof. Flour  mixed  with  water  into  a  stiff  dough  and 
fried  in  hot  pork  grease  makes  dough  gods  very  accept- 
able to  woodsmen  when  eaten  hot,  but  deadly  enough  to 


0    .  V  f  K  IJ 


THE  TKACKLESS  WILDS  OF  CANADA     99 

any  one  not  living  in  the  open  and  not  working  hard. 
I  think  they  even  hurt  the  ironclad  cruiser  in  the  long 
run.  The  same  dough  baked  in  the  frying  pan  makes  a 
nourishing,  unleavened  galette. 

On  these  rations  I  lived  for  many  years  during  the 
season  between  the  going  and  the  coming  of  the  snow, 
one  year  walking  and  packing  two  thousand  two  hun- 
dred miles  and  several  times  exceeding  one  thousand 
eight  hundred  miles. 

The  most  interesting  particular  region  we  searched 
was  the  valley  of  the  Abinadong,  a  tributary  of  the  hurt- 
ling Mississauga.  These  streams  on  the  Great  Lakes' 
side  of  the  height  of  land  are  wicked  in  their  fury  to 
get  down  to  their  vent  and  their  erosive  power  is  enor- 
mous. They  rush  madly  through  the  firmest  dykes, 
cutting  contracted  canals,  forming  polished  gorges,  and 
forever  roaring  and  shouting  when  they  are  not  tickling 
pebbles  into  song  as  they  loiter  on  some  nearly  level 
stretch.  The  Mississauga  is  such  a  typical  river.  Not 
so  rough  in  its  moods  as  the  Abinadong.  Its  valley  is 
less  rocky.  There  are  sandy  savannas. 

Low,  elmwooded  islands  are  quite  numerous.  They 
possess  good  soil  and  vegetation  grows  lush.  Some- 
times brakes  as  high  as  one's  head  would  be  encoun- 
tered, and  beds  of  delicate,  black-stalked  maiden  hair 
ferns  higher  than  our  knees.  In  June  the  banks  were 
lined  with  Indian  roses,  making  a  canoe  promenade  of 
pink.  A  little  later  these  were  succeeded  by  the  plenti- 
ful white  blossoms  of  the  northern  wild  clematis,  the 
fastest  growing  climbing  plant  in  this  region. 

Nowhere  before  or  since  have  I  seen  so  much  wild 
life.  Moose  would  stare  as  dully  at  one  as  oxen,  and 
red  deer  knew  no  fear.  Rabbits  and  squirrels  would 
play  about  our  feet  and  were  a  nuisance  because  they 


100  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

would  steal  our  dough  gods  at  every  camp.  Caribou 
were  not  really  wild.  Wolves  and  foxes  would  scuttle 
away,  but  bears  showed  neither  sign  of  fear  nor  much 
concern  about  man  things. 

The  pileated  woodpecker  was  our  barometer.  His 
rain  call  never  misses.  Once  I  heard  a  pileated  wood- 
pecker and  a  raven  talking  to  one  another.  It  did  not 
take  much  imagination  to  conclude  that  they  were  argu- 
ing about  the  weather.  Anyhow  the  pileated  kept  on 
shrieking  his  raucous  zee  —  cruck,  zee  —  cruck,  but 
the  raven  did  not  join  in  until  a  day  later.  It  rained. 

The  pileated  woodpecker  is  the  wisest  bird  in  this 
part  of  the  world.  It  will  even  come  to  man  to  be 
saved.  Justice  Steere,  of  the  Michigan  Supreme  Court, 
relates  that  once  when  he  was  in  a  forest  a  large  hawk 
assailed  a  pileated  woodpecker.  The  bird  of  the  royal 
red  crest  flew  to  the  jurist  and  was  saved. 

Otter,  beaver,  mink,  marten  and  fisher  were  much 
more  numerous  along  the  Abinadong  than  is  usual.  It 
appeared  that  this  tranquil  valley  was  a  perfect  game 
sanctuary.  That  is  just  what  it  was.  I  had  much 
difficulty  in  inducing  Minabog  to  ascend  the  river  at  all. 
When  we  came  to  the  mouth  he  said,  "  No  go  up."  And 
he  stuck  to  it  until  I  threatened  to  desert  him.  This 
brought  him  to  time  and  caused  him  to  tell  me  the  secret 
of  the  river. 

It  is  the  land  of  the  Windigo;  belongs  to  it  as  its 
home.  No  human  ever  trespasses.  Hundreds  of  years 
ago,  according  to  tradition,  the  Ojibways  tried  repeat- 
edly to  trap  along  the  river.  Some  of  them  never  re- 
turned ;  others  came  back  and  were  mad  murderers  and 
cannibals  and  had  to  be  killed  by  the  tribe.  Then  the 
Abinadong  was  given  over  to  the  ghosts  that  lived  along 
it.  No  Ojibway  can  tell  you  just  what  a  Windigo  is. 


THE  TKACKLESS  WILDS  OF  CANADA     101 

John  Tanner,  who  lived  with  them  thirty  years,  never 
found  out  exactly;  nor  did  the . observing  and  accurate 
Alexander  Henry,  nor  Schoolcraft. 

The  Windigo  is  not  the  devil  and  is  only  an  evil  spirit 
when  his  hunting  ground  is  invaded  or  he  is  molested  in 
some  other  way.  He  has  power  to  turn  men  into  eaters 
of  human  flesh  and  is  quite  as  subtle  as  the  werwulf  or 
the  loup  garou.  The  most  horrible  thing  he  does  is 
to  eat  away  the  base  of  the  tongue  or  the  inside  of  the 
eyeball  or  the  lining  of  the  upper  nose  and  inner  ear,  to 
an  extent  not  to  be  fatal,  but  worse.  Among  the  Chip- 
pewas  the  fear  of  the  Windigo  is  supreme.  That  is  why 
the  Abinadong  is  a  paradise  of  wild  life  to  this  mo- 
ment. It  is  the  home  of  the  ghastly  Windigo  and  I 
hope  it  will  be  forever,  because  I  imagine  the  whole 
thing  is  a  story  devised  by  the  wise  old  fathers  of  the 
redmen  so  that  a  place  would  be  preserved  where  game, 
so  necessary  to  them,  might  propagate  in  perfect  safety. 
White  men  ought  to  set  up  several  Windigo  places  as 
game  sanctuaries. 

I  reported  nothing  of  value  to  the  syndicate  that  em- 
ployed me.  It  was  a  disappointment.  It  seems  that 
I  was  expected  to  find  something  whether  there  was  any- 
thing or  not.  Such  was  the  speculative  excitement  that 
a  good  story  could  have  been  capitalized  to  big  advan- 
tage. Next  year  they  sent  in  another  person  who  sup- 
plied the  desired  report,  upon  which  more  than  a  quar- 
ter of  a  million  dollars  were  expended  and  lost. 


CHAPTER  XI 

CHARMED  BY  THE   BEAUTY  OF  SAULT  DE   SAINTE  MARIE 

AND    FASCINATED    BY    ITS    ENVIRONS    I    CHOOSE   IT 

AS    A    HOME    FOR    LIFE 

THE  Sault  country  fascinated  me  as  it  had  many 
another  and  always  will  continue  to  do.  Mazy 
summers  of  life  and  pure  joy.  Winters  of  stim- 
ulating majesty  by  which  men,  women  and  children  are 
made  robust  or  driven  away ;  no  colorless  middle  ground. 

Mel  Hoyt  had  recently  graduated  from  the  University 
of  Wisconsin  as  a  lawyer,  but  had  taken  up  newspaper 
work  and  was  already  compelling.  His  rapier  mind 
was  reaching  and  strong.  I  told  him  the  story  of  the 
north.  He  was  as  enthusiastic  as  Tom  Moore  was  when 
he  mused  the  Hyperboreans.  And  parenthetically 
Moore  was  an  instinctive  poet.  He  only  knew  the 
Greek  legend  of  the  peopled  north  and  was  not  aware 
that  moderns  have  proved  the  North  Pole  to  have  been 
habitable,  and  not  unlikely  to  have  been  the  incunabu- 
lum  of  the  human  race,  at  least  as  the  race  is  now  known. 

Mel  and  I  bought  the  Sault  News,  a  struggling, 
under-dog,  weekly  paper  in  1887.  I  had  enough  money 
to  make  the  deal  a  cash  one  and  as  I  had  formed  the 
attachment  for  my  partner  that  has  only  grown  richer 
between  us  all  our  lives,  it  was  a  keen  delight  to  carry 
him  for  his  share.  We  went  at  the  thing  hammer  and 
tongs,  and  it  was  not  long  before  we  had  our  paper  on 
a  paying  basis  and  our  competitor  on  the  run.  The 

102 


A  HOME  FOE  LIFE  103 

Sault  was  booming.  Goose  pastures  were  being  sub- 
divided. The  whistle  of  the  work  train  on  the  coming 
railroads  could  be  heard.  The  trail  to  Hudson  Bay, 
which  had  been  one  of  the  passages  to  and  from  the  big 
world,  would  be  side-tracked.  French  habitants  were 
made  over  from  muskrat  hunters  to  millionaires  in  a 
day,  in  their  minds.  Many  a  palace  with  pink  body 
and  blue  trimmings  was  started  and  some  were  built. 
An  artificial  atmosphere  contaminated  the  Northwest 
wind  for  a  while  and  then  blew  away,  taking  on  its 
wings  some  of  the  adventurers  and  undesirables.  Good 
people  found  their  way  and  started  legitimately  to  build 
a  city  in  one  of  the  most  attractive  locations  on  earth. 

Our  ambitions  took  fire  with  the  others.  We  took 
in  Sandy  Dingwall  as  a  third  partner  and  planned  as 
avidly  as  the  best  or  worst.  Sandy  had  been  a  clerk 
in  the  Wisconsin  Fire  and  Marine  Bank,  of  Milwaukee, 
for  which  George  Smith  laid  the  foundation  and  Alex- 
ander Mitchell,  David  Ferguson  and  John  Johnston 
erected  the  superstructure.  The  Northwest  was  a  New 
Scotland  until  the  Germans  and  Scandinavians  came  to 
compete. 

The  Sault  grew  until  its  country  trousers  did  not 
reach  its  ankles.  It  had  to  have  a  new  suit  cut  by  up- 
to-date  tailors.  That  meant  city  organization.  We 
were  tremendously  interested  and  took  a  very  active 
part.  There  were  ordinances  to  print  and  other  fat 
takes,  and  it  was  our  business  to  get  them.  I  am  posi- 
tive that  not  one  of  us  had  an  ethical  thought.  We 
were  young  fellows  with  eager  hopes  and  no  tangible 
ideals.  My  own  boyhood  and  young  manhood  makes 
me  think  that  vital  youth  is  a  thinly  disguised  barba- 
rian, or  was  in  my  time. 

Election  day  came.     The  village  had  been  democratic 


104  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

if  it  could  be  said  that  there  were  partisan  conditions. 
Really  the  Trempes,  or  the  Ryans  or  the  Browns,  or  an 
arrangement  between  them,  usually  controlled  things. 
A  short  time  before  they  had  been  shocked  by  Charley 
Chapman,  a  newcomer,  who  had  been  made  village  presi- 
dent without  asking  permission  of  the  old  regime.  In 
the  ancient  days  that  were  declining  a  few  barrels  of 
pork  and  some  of  whiskey  carried  every  election. 

At  the  first  city  election  in  the  Sault  there  was  a 
crazy  quilt  of  corruption,  and  not  a  soul  raised  a  warn- 
ing or  even  an  objecting  hand.  Political  morals  were 
as  unknown  as  if  the  country  had  never  been  discov- 
ered. I  saw  the  unclean  hand  ungloved,  hard  and  bold, 
for  the  second  time.  Uncle  Ike  and  A.  C.  Brown  had 
exhibited  a  marked  refinement  compared  with  the  meth- 
ods in  the  Sault.  I  do  not  suppose  that  worse  ever  ex- 
isted—  the  darkest  practices  before  the  dawn  of  re- 
form. 

Political  lines  were  drawn  taut.  Otto  Fowle,  a 
banker,  had  been  nominated  for  Mayor  by  the  Repub- 
lican local  leaders,  among  whom  William  Chandler, 
Joseph  H.  Steere,  George  Kemp  and  Charley  Spalding 
were  prominent.  There  was  no  clash  between  the  old 
and  the  new  among  the  Republicans.  The  Democrats 
were  not  so  lucky  apparently.  Billy  Cady,  also  a 
banker,  was  nominated  by  the  Democrats  controlled  by 
the  new  element. 

Hoyt,  Dingwall  and  I  were  as  busy  as  three  live 
young  fellows  could  be.  The  open  sewers  ran  whiskey, 
and  drunken  Indians  staggered  through  the  knee-deep 
spring  slush  in  all  directions.  It  might  have  been  safe 
for  a  woman  to  have  appeared  on  the  street,  but  not  one 
did.  By  ten  o'clock  we  discovered  that  the  Democrats 
were  paying  a  dollar  apiece  for  votes  in  addition  to 


A  HOME  FOR  LIFE  105 

free  whiskey.  At  once  the  leaders  on  our  side  armed 
their  workers  with  a  good  many  more  dollar  bills  than 
the  voting  population  of  the  town  numbered,  because  the 
votes  were  coming  in  from  Sugar  Island,  Sault  Town- 
ship, the  Canadian  Sault  and  even  from  the  Indian 
Mission  on  Waiskai  Bay  and  as  far  as  Whitefish  Point. 
It  was  not  a  question  of  morals  with  anybody  concerned ; 
the  problem  to  be  solved  was  whether  they  could  get  to 
this  purchasable  human  commodity  and  had  enough 
money  to  get  it  away  from  the  other  side.  Nobody  went 
into  an  alley  or  behind  a  barn  unless  it  was  to  keep  the 
other  side  from  penetrating  whatever  strategy  there  was. 

Fist  fights  were  going  on  all  day,  and  as  my  partners 
and  I  rushed  from  one  polling  place  to  another,  we 
could  not  avoid  them  nor  did  we  try  to  do  so.  Finally 
the  day  wore  through.  Soon  the  polls  would  close. 
The  fight  was  furious.  At  the  Fourth  Ward  polls  oc- 
curred the  astounding  thing  of  the  day,  even  as  I  now 
view  that  ollapodrida  of  strange  experiences,  proving 
that  a  condition  is  a  condition  and  that  morals  have  no 
stable  standards  and  are  really  a  matter  of  inner  growth. 
Very  evidently  the  leaders  had  either  no  inner  growth 
or  nothing  else  to  go  by,  and  everybody  else  was  in  the 
same  boat. 

About  ten  minutes  before  the  polls  closed,  a  thrifty 
citizen  drove  up  with  a  team  bearing  twelve  drunken 
Indians,  an  even  dozen.  Mike  O'Day  began  to  negoti- 
ate for  them  at  once  for  the  Democrats.  A  Republican 
pushed  him  aside  and  they  roughed  it  a  little,  when, 
realizing  how  short  the  time  was  to  buy  those  votes  and 
get  them  in,  they  got  to  work  again.  It  became  a  mat- 
ter of  open  bidding  as  in  a  slave  mart  or  auction  of  any 
kind.  Dollar  by  dollar  they  raised  each  other.  O'Day 
bid  twelve  dollars  a  head.  Both  leaders  knew  the  elec- 


106  THE  IKON  HUNTER 

tion  was  close.  The  Republican  raised  his  bid  to  four- 
teen dollars.  It  was  more  than  O'Day  had.  The 
Democrats  were  all  in.  The  Republicans  got  the  votes 
—  twelve  —  count  them  —  at  fourteen  dollars  each, 
open  auction. 

Otto  Fowle  was  elected  by  seven  majority. 

Will  you  say  that  public  morals  have  not  improved 
since  then  ?  Improved  is  not  meanirgful  enough. 
There  has  been  a  complete  transformation,  except  in 
cities  like  Detroit,  where  the  so-called  good  citizen  is  too 
often  a  silk-stocking  derelict  on  election  day.  And  my 
morals  have  improved.  I  thought  of  nothing  wrong 
when  I  took  part  in  that  unclean  election,  and  I  wish 
to  be  charitable  with  those  who  may  not  have  had  a 
chance  to  see  and  know  better  and  who  still  besmirch 
the  ballot.  About  that  Sault  election  even  the  preachers 
knew  everything  and  said  nothing,  and  the  candidates 
were  Honorable  men.  Not  a  word  was  said  before  or 
soon  after  about  the  influence  of  money  and  whiskey  and 
pork  and  their  use.  It  was  not  long  before  the  scales 
fell  from  my  eyes  and  I  saw  the  heinousness  of  it. 

To  atone  is  one  of  the  reasons  I  have  fought  for  clean 
politics  and  honest  government  ever  since. 

A  number  of  candidates  appeared  for  the  Sault  post- 
office  after  Cleveland's  defeat.  There  was  a  good  deal 
of  friction.  The  office  was  offered  to  me  as  a  compro- 
mise, but  I  declined.  However,  while  I  was  upon  an 
expedition  in  the  woods  I  was  appointed.  About  the 
same  time  the  business  bubble  burst.  Hoyt,  Dingwall 
and  I  jeffed  to  see  who  would  keep  the  Sault  News. 
We  had  made  up  our  minds  that  there  was  not  room 
enough  for  three  in  the  business.  Mr.  Hoyt  was  a 
strong  man  and  until  very  lately  was  the  successful  ed- 
itor and  publisher  of  the  Milwaukee  Daily  News  and 


A  HOME  FOR  LIFE  107 

one  of  the  able  men  of  the  Nation.  Mr.  Dingwall  be- 
came a  millionaire  play  manager  in  New  York,  of 
which  he  gave  signs  when  as  a  boy  he  had  the  dramatic 
column  in  the  Milwaukee  Sentinel.  I  lost,  as  we 
thought,  as  it  fell  to  me  to  keep  the  paper  and  remain 
in  the  Sault,  where  my  life  has  been  so  satisfactory  and 
my  friendships  so  happy  among  a  people  with  no  supe- 
riors, that  it  turned  out  that  I  won  richly. 

Before  our  debacle  I  had  made  plans  for  systematic 
exploration  in  Canada  and  had  started  the  work.  To 
the  North  from  the  Sault  is  a  beautiful  sky  line  of  un- 
broken hills.  Sometimes  they  wear  a  rich  blue  haze. 
At  other  times  they  are  dressed  in  the  gorgeous  reds  and 
golds  of  autumn.  In  the  summer  these  hills  are  green 
and  in  the  winter  pure  white.  They  are  the  oldest 
things  in  the  world  if  geological  chronology  means  any- 
thing. Stretching  away  from  Cape  Canso  to  Queen 
Charlotte  Sound  without  a  fracture  they  are  more  the 
back  bone  of  the  North  American  continent  than  are  the 
Rockies.  Between  them  and  the  North  Pole  there  was 
nothing  of  man  in  those  days  and  there  is  not  much  yet. 

Behind  those  hills  lay  the  greatest  and  least  known 
wilderness  in  the  world.  It  drew  me  like  a  human 
loadstone. 

Something  lost  behind  the  mountains ;  "  lost  and  wait- 
ing for  you,  go !  " 

If  I  had  not  gone  something  in  me  would  have  busted ; 
now  I  don't  mean  burst  —  something  ruder  than  that. 
I  knew  that  such  little  exploration  as  had  been  done 
followed  the  rivers.  Along  the  rivers  were  trails  and 
canoe  routes.  Fish  lived  in  the  waters ;  fur  lived  on  the 
fish ;  Indians  subsisted  by  the  fish  and  fur,  and  the  Hud- 
son Bay  Company  exploited  the  Indians.  Hence  the 
one  way  of  things  along  the  streams.  Drainage  of  this 


108  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

half  the  continent  was  south  from  the  height  of  land 
to  the  basin  of  the  Great  Lakes,  and  North  from  the 
same  great  divide  to  Hudson  Bay  and  the  Arctic  Ocean. 
Almost  no  attention  had  been  given  to  minerals.  Pine 
was  coming  in,  and  furs  had  been  the  golden  fleece  for 
two  centuries  and  fleece  is  right. 

My  idea  was  to  conduct  reconnoissances  across  the 
country.  This  meant  packing  supplies  on  the  back  al- 
most altogether  and  hard  work.  It  also  meant  seeing 
country  that  even  the  Indians  had  not  seen.  I  was 
eager  to  pay  the  toll.  It  was  something  of  the  spirit 
that  had  driven  and  coaxed  my  grandfather  across  the 
Alleghenies. 

While  I  was  in  the  wilderness  the  Sault  News  was 
expected  to  subsist  my  family.  It  was  my  permanent 
dock  where  I  tied  up  my  hope  of  sustenance  and  it  did 
not  fail.  Critical  conditions  arose ;  most  of  them  dur- 
ing my  four-year  term  as  postmaster.  As  I  anticipated 
would  be  the  case,  a  good  many  older  citizens  resented 
my  selection.  I  was  too  new.  Then,  as  postmaster,  I 
was  consulted  by  the  state  and  national  party  machine. 
This  also  brought  its  conflicts  and  embarrassments  and 
compelled  me  to  attend  at  times  very  closely  to  my  knit- 
ting. 

Booms  bring  to  towns  a  regular  riffraff  of  things, 
more  good  than  bad,  no  doubt,  but  it  takes  only  one 
rotten  apple  in  a  barrel  to  foul  all  the  rest,  and  a  whole 
barrel  of  good  apples  will  not  cure  a  rotten  one;  just 
got  to  throw  it  out.  I  undertook  the  throwing  out  game 
and  took  on  no  end  of  tough  enemies. 

Two  factions  fought  over  variant  plans  for  the  water 
power  development.  One  was  for  the  old  LaCrosse  and 
Milwaukee  Cargill-Elliott  crowd  and  the  other  favored 
certain  big  promises  made  by  Alexander  Hamilton 


I 

02 


A  HOME  FOE  LIFE  109 

Gunn,  for  an  alleged  English  syndicate.  The  enter- 
prising townspeople  had  already  gone  down  into  their 
own  pockets  for  a  bonus  of  one  hundred  thousand  dol- 
lars to  start  the  thing  and  they  were  pyrographically 
concerned. 

As  usual  in  such  things,  politics  poked  in  through  the 
doorway  of  a  desired  franchise.  I  took  sides  with  the 
tangible  proposition  made  by  Cargill  and  his  associ- 
ates. A  popular  local  manufacturer  named  Lewis  A. 
Hall,  of  Bay  Mills,  ten  miles  up  the  shore,  became  in- 
terested. In  order  to  influence  the  council,  ground  was 
broken  for  the  huge,  paper-making  plant,  which  after- 
wards became  the  Niagara  Pulp  &  Paper  Company  at 
Niagara  Falls. 

The  segregated  judgment  of  the  people  is  ever  a  prob- 
lem. In  sufficient  mass  with  adequate  interest  involv- 
ing almost  life  or  death,  the  people  invariably  go  right ; 
in  local  cases,  wherein  momentary  passion  obscures,  they 
are  just  as  apt  or  apter  to  go  wrong. 

After  a  bitter  recriminatory  contest  the  Sault  re- 
jected the  bird  in  the  hand  for  one  that  was  said  to  be 
in  the  bush,  but  was  never  seen.  It  plunged  the  town 
into  commercial  gloom  sooner  or  later,  thus  compelling 
a  penance  of  years  for  the  mistake. 

During  this  fight  another  opposition  paper  was  es- 
tablished, making  three  in  the  field  —  too  many.  I  had 
been  roasted  until  I  was  getting  hardened  to  it,  and 
had  been  hung  and  burned  in  effigy,  all  in  the  way  of 
supplying  me  with  experience  that  would  entitle  me 
some  day  to  join  the  veterans'  corps  of  those  who  become 
immune  to  such  shafts.  My  continual  war  against 
the  gamblers,  tough  saloons  and  West  End  prostitutes 
always  made  it  possible  for  my  enemies  to  mobilize  a 
strong  force  against  me.  At  least  once  they  started  to 


110  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

march  to  my  home  to  mob  me.  The  common  knowl- 
edge that  I  had  a  half  a  dozen  rifles  and  could  and  prob- 
ably would  shoot,  made  the  gang  listen  to  those  who 
advised  giving  me  a  wide  berth.  A  coterie  of  citizens, 
respectable  enough  outwardly,  but  willing  to  lie  in  with 
the  worst  element  to  achieve  a  result,  organized  for  the 
purpose  and  boasted  that  they  would  drive  me  out  of 
town. 

I  have  had  two  such  fights  in  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  run- 
ning over  several  years.  My  frequent  absence  from 
home  seemed  to  make  it  easier  for  my  enemies  to  undo 
me.  Sometimes,  when  I  would  return  they  would  have 
a  warrant  awaiting  me  and  would  serve  it  on  a  Saturday 
night  so  as  to  keep  me  in  jail  at  least  over  Sunday. 
Always  some  good  friend  would  find  out  their  plan 
and  would  have  everything  ready  to  circumvent  it  suc- 
cessfully. The  favorite  charge  brought  against  me  was 
criminal  libel.  I  have  defended  nineteen  libel  suits 
and  have  been  successful  every  time,  because  I  tried  to 
be  in  the  right  and  was  able  to  assemble  a  sufficient  de- 
fense. Even  now  I  cross  my  fingers  and  touch  wood. 

Once  while  I  was  postmaster  my  enemies  charged  me 
with  overcharging  an  ignorant  foreigner  for  a  money 
order.  Inasmuch  as  I  had  never  issued  a  money  order 
in  my  life,  it  was  easy  to  disprove  this.  In  fact,  my 
enemies  have  generally,  in  their  blind  bitterness,  over- 
done their  attacks. 

Such  a  life  of  civic  and  social  warfare  made  for  me 
many  golden  friends  as  well  as  unpleasant  enmities.  I 
learned  that  character  may  be  good  enough  to  be  malice 
and  slander  bomb  proof,  and  I  tried  to  build  such  a  one. 

"  If  you  don't  do  it  you  can't  be  caught,"  was  my 
motto. 


A  HOME  FOR  LIFE  111 

That  was  a  selfish  thought  at  first  and  only  gave  way 
with  years  and  growth  to  my  guide  of  later  years : 

"  Eight  because  of  Right." 

I  will  not  try  to  convey  the  impossible  idea  that  I  was 
always  right,  because  I  was  not.  I  was  forever  doing 
something  and  I  made  mistakes,  but  I  never  committed 
another  criminal  act  after  the  Indian  vote  buying,  re- 
lated in  a  previous  chapter.  Perhaps  I  might  go  fur- 
ther and  state  that  I  have  always  tried  to  do  right  and 
hope  that  fifty-one  per  cent,  of  my  acts  have  been  of  that 
character.  At  least  I  learned  that  life  cannot  be  a  bluff 
or  a  four  flush,  actions  must  square  with  words,  and 
habits  and  associations  must  harmonize  with  aspirations. 
The  hour  never  appealed  to  me  and  only  those  who  know 
me  least  would  designate  me  as  an  opportunist. 

My  Uncle  William  Osborn  was  one  of  the  best  men 
in  the  world.  He  said  to  me  once: 

"  Nephew,  where  does  the  trail  of  life  you  are  on 
lead  to  ?  Every  man's  life  is  a  trail ;  it  is  as  long  as  he 
lives.  There  are  many  blind  bypaths  leading  off. 
Some  of  them  go  nowhere ;  others  lead  to  quagmires  and 
precipices.  The  chart  of  the  trail  is  the  bible;  the 
lights  on  the  way  are  Christian  efforts.  If  you  get  off 
the  trail  go  back  to  the  last  point  you  were  certain  of 
and  start  again.  Don't  be  afraid  to  back  up  when  you 
are  wrong  and  don't  be  afraid  to  go  ahead  when  you 
are  right.  Carry  your  own  load  and  help  those  who  are 
not  as  strong  as  you  are  to  bear  their  burdens.  Show 
your  colors.  If  you  are  not  with  a  church  you  are 
against  it,  or  worse  yet,  an  agnostic,  living  in  the  twi- 
light zone  of  individual  cowardice.  The  average  trail 
is  three  score  and  ten  years  long.  Yours  and  every 
man's  will  land  him  safe  if  he  uses  his  conscience  as  a 


112  THE  IKON  HUNTER 

guide  and  his  better  desires  as  a  staff.  Where  are  you 
going  to  fetch  up  at  seventy?  Read  '  Pilgrim V Prog- 
ress.' » 

My  uncle's  sermonette  made  the  deepest  impression 
on  me  of  any  advice  I  ever  received.  "  Where  are  you 
going  to  fetch  up  at  seventy  ?  " 

So  the  halfway  houses  have  not  held  me  very  long 
and  the  jack  o'  lanterns  have  not  dangerously  enticed  me 
off  the  main  trail  yet.  For  this  I  am  thankful  to  God 
as  the  way  to  go  has  been  very  dim  at  times  and  hard 
to  follow,  and  there  have  been  rocks  in  the  way  and  I 
have  stumbled.  But  I  always  got  up,  put  my  jaws  to- 
gether, smiled  to  myself  and  went  on.  If  I  were  asked 
the  secret  of  success  and  happiness  I  would  say  applied 
energy  and  poised  growth. 


CHAPTEE  XII 

I  AM  USED  AS  A  POLITICAL  FULCEUM  BY  JAY 
HUBBELL  TO  PRY  OUT  SAM  STEPHENSON 

ONE  day  William  Chandler,  of  the  Sault,  came 
into  my  office.  He  loved  politics  and  no  sooner 
had  Joe  Steere  landed  in  the  Sault  to  recover 
from  an  attack  of  Lenawee  enteric,  than  he  was  placed 
on  the  circuit  bench  to  succeed  Judge  Goodwin. 

The  Chandler  and  Oren  families  were  mixed  up  with 
mine  back  in  the  old  Ohio  days.  I  had  gone  to  school 
with  Mrs.  Chandler  at  Purdue,  and  had  been  taught 
by  her  very  superior  mother.  Mr.  Chandler  asked  me 
if  I  would  like  to  go  to  Congress.  I  was  only  a  little 
past  thirty  and  had  not  thought  of  any  office,  let  alone 
Congress.  I  had  been  in  so  many  fights  that  my  opin- 
ion was  that  I  could  not  have  been  elected  dog  catcher, 
and  I  told  Chandler  so.  He  scarcely  listened  to  me. 

Ours  was  the  twelfth  district.  It  had  been  formed 
geographically  in  various  ways.  Just  then  it  com- 
prised the  entire  Upper  Peninsula  or  about  one-third  the 
area  of  the  entire  State,  divided  into  fifteen  counties, 
and  had  a  population  of  about  two  hundred  fifty  thou- 
sand. From  Canada  to  the  Montreal  River  east  and 
west,  and  from  the  mouth  of  the  Menominee  to  Kewee- 
naw  Point  north  and  south,  inclosed  a  formidable  re- 
gion. Its  interests  were  lumbering,  iron  ore  mining 
and  copper  mining.  Now  agriculture,  then  just  begin- 
ning to  be  seriously  considered,  forms  an  important  pur- 

113 


114  THE  IROJST  HUNTER 

suit,  with  prospects  of  ultimately  yielding  more  than 
all  the  others. 

There  were  lines  of  political  cleavage  between  the 
various  interests.  Sam  Stephenson,  of  Menominee,  was 
our  representative.  He  was  a  brother  of  Uncle  Ike, 
and  their  fraternal  ambitions  could  not  be  carried  in 
the  same  basket,  as  one  lived  in  Michigan  and  the  other 
in  Wisconsin,  separated  by  the  Menominee  River.  It 
was  good  for  them  to  be  so  near  together,  because  they 
each  nourished  a  proper  desire  not  to  be  outstripped  by 
the  other  and  they  could  keep  tab  on  each  other.  They 
were  wholesome  men  of  their  type  and  period.  Only 
one  way  was  there  to  get  anything  and  that  was  to  buy 
it.  Hence  their  life  could  be  summed  up:  get  money 
and  buy  what  you  want  They  were  honest  according 
to  prevailing  standards,  generous  when  they  could  see 
what  they  were  getting  for  their  giving,  profane  in  lan- 
guage, chin  likely  to  be  a  nicotine  delta,  canny  in  a 
trade,  forceful  in  business,  crude  and  rude  and  uncouth 
in  matters,  manners  and  education,  endued  with  homely 
horse  sense  and  enough  courage.  They  were  both  rich 
and  getting  richer  sawing  pine  lumber  and  selling  it. 

I  have  never  been  able  to  determine  the  place  of  such 
men.  Mostly  I  have  thought  they  performed  a  needful 
function  and  occupied  a  legitimate  sphere.  They  got 
their  timber  from  the  Government  directly  or  otherwise 
at  small  cost,  almost  nothing.  They  cut  it  ruthlessly 
and  the  waste  was  scattered  everywhere  they  lumbered, 
and  allowed  to  burn  and  destroy  great,  uncut  forests 
and  even  villages  and  lives,  as  witness  Peshtigo  and 
many  other  places. 

There  was  a  need  for  economical  house  material  all 
over  the  growing  nation.  It  was  thus  adequately  sup- 
plied. One  cannot  have  his  cake  and  eat  it  too ;  nor  can 


A  POLITICAL  FULCRUM  115 

he  have  trees  and  wheat  in  the  same  field.  Greater  care 
and  selection  in  lumbering  would  have  increased  the 
cost  of  home  building  during  a  critical  period,  and 
would  have  delayed  farm  development.  Consequently, 
I  do  not  join  with  those  who  curse  the  Stephensons  and 
their  congeners. 

Sam  Stephenson  had  just  bought  a  seat  in  the  House 
of  Representatives,  just  as  he  would  purchase  a  plug  of 
tobacco  or  a  bottle  of  bone  liniment.  It  did  not  mat- 
ter to  him  whether  Henry  W.  Seymour,  of  the  Sault, 
had  occupied  it  only  a  brief  few  months  since  the  un- 
timely death  of  Representative  Seth  Moffatt,  of  Trav- 
erse City.  It  just  "belonged  to  the  feller  that  could 
git  it,"  was  the  way  Sam  sized  it  up,  so  he  turned  his 
labial  nozzle  on  Mr.  Seymour  and  injected  a  stream 
of  tobacco  juice  in  his  eye,  after  the  manner  of  squids. 

When  that  benign  gentleman  got  through  rubbing  his 
eyes  he  could  not  find  his  seat  in  Congress.  It  was  not 
a  gentlemanly  thing  to  do  perhaps,  but  Sawlog  Sam  got 
what  he  was  after,  which  is  the  object  in  life  a  great 
many  have. 

Now  it  appears  that  Mr.  Seymour  got  in  because  Mr. 
Chandler  and  other  friends  were  able  to  tie  the  tails  of 
the  copper  and  iron  and  sawlog  cats  together,  and  throw 
them  over  the  district  political  clothesline.  Down  in 
Chippewa  County  we  were  in  the  minority  and  flocked 
with  nobody.  Our  only  hope  was  in  a  scrap  by  the 
others. 

Jay  Hubbell,  of  Houghton,  who  was  called  "  Two 
per  cent."  because  of  his  dextrous  assessment  of  post- 
masters for  campaign  purposes  while  in  the  House  of 
Representatives  and  chairman  of  the  Congressional 
Campaign  Committee,  hated  Sam  Stephenson  plenty. 
I  do  not  know  the  origin  of  the  feud,  or  whether  it  ex- 


116  THE  IKON  HUNTER 

tended  beyond  political  boundaries  or  not.  Hubbell 
was  a  strong  man,  educated  as  a  lawyer,  resourceful  and 
the  foxiest  politician  in  the  district. 

I  did  not  know  that  he  had  ever  heard  my  name. 
But  he  had,  and  just  as  horsemen  have  their  eye  out  for 
likely  colts,  he  had  his  at  the  political  periscope.  Down 
he  came  to  the  Sault  and  deposited  a  bug  in  Mr.  Chan- 
dler's ear,  where  it  was  to  abide  until  it  could  be  trans- 
ferred to  mine.  I  wore  no  ear  laps  in  the  summer  and 
they  got  me. 

Mr.  Hubbell  had  no  use  for  me.  He  did  not  tell  me 
so;  nor  did  he  exactly  tell  Chandler  that  he  had  not. 
But  he  was  not  delicate  about  admitting  to  the  latter 
what  he  kept  from  me,  and  that  was  his  master  hunger 
just  then  was  to  beat  Sam  Stephenson.  The  scheme  was 
to  have  favorite  sons  in  enough  counties  to  split  things 
up,  and  thus  make  Stephenson's  renomination  impossi- 
ble. I  was  to  carry  my  home  county  of  Chippewa  and 
possibly  Mackinac  and  Luce,  and  even  might  keep  things 
stirred  up  in  Schoolcraft.  Carl  Sheldon  was  brought 
out  in  Houghton  County.  John  Q.  Adams,  of  Negau- 
nee,  and  Colonel  C.  Y.  Osburn,  of  Marquette,  were  can- 
didates in  Marquette,  the  heart  of  the  iron  region. 

Trouble  enough  I  made  for  all  hands.  I  did  not 
know  that  my  part  was  to  be  only  that  of  a  tool.  So  I 
went  at  the  thing  slambang.  I  was  familiar  with  the 
campaigns  of  Henry  Clay  and  Abraham  Lincoln. 
Their  districts  were  not  wilder  nor  larger  than  the  one 
I  had  to  cover.  In  fact,  bears  and  wolves  and  wildcats 
were  thicker  in  our  part  of  Michigan  than  they  were  in 
Kentucky  in  Henry  Clay's  time.  Schoolhouses  were  as 
far  apart.  Trusty  rifles  hung  on  many-pointed  antlers, 
and  there  were  thousands  of  Indians  who  only  went  on 
whiskey  war  paths. 


A  POLITICAL  FULCRUM  117 

I  determined  to  campaign  every  school  district  in  the 
Upper  Peninsula.  How  else  could  I  win  without 
money  to  buy  my  way?  It  was  the  first  campaign  of 
the  kind  ever  conducted  in  this  way  in  our  part  of  the 
State.  My  knowledge  of  hunting  and  woodcraft  and 
my  life  on  the  Menominee  range  gave  me  certain  advan- 
tages, and  I  made  the  most  of  them  I  could. 

Quite  quickly  my  candidature  developed  from  an  in- 
cident to  a  menace.  At  first  Uncle  Sam  gave  no  sign 
of  knowing  of  it ;  then  he  roundly  haw-hawed  and  then 
he  sent  out  agents  and  money  in  plenty  to  head  me  off. 
I  really  liked  the  people,  especially  those  in  remote  set- 
tlements, and  some  of  them  liked  me.  The  old  system 
obtained.  Caucuses  began  to  be  held  and  I  was  suc- 
cessful in  more  townships  and  counties  than  anybody 
had  estimated.  Sometimes  when  our  side  won,  the 
more  bitter  and  resourceful  would  send  contesting  dele- 
gations. This  was  particularly  true  in  Delta  and  Iron 
counties.  Every  political  trick  known,  running  the 
gamut  of  money,  bulldozing,  cajolery,  lying  and  prom- 
ises, was  resorted  to.  Our  side  might  have  been  as 
guilty  as  the  other  if  we  had  been  supplied  with  the 
same  weapons.  We  did  not  use  money  because  we  had 
none  to  use. 

Jay  Hubbell  and  his  schemes  were  lost  sight  of  in  the 
curiosity  that  was  aroused  by  the  queer  campaign  I  was 
making.  I  walked  and  worked  night  and  day,  attended 
socials  in  churches  for  which  Uncle  Sam  had  donated 
the  principal  part  of  the  building  fund ;  went  to  coun- 
try dances  and  called  at  hundreds  of  houses  where  a 
candidate  had  never  been  before.  Came  the  Congres- 
sional Convention.  It  was  held  at  Ironwood,  a  victory 
for  me  because  Gogebic  County  was  for  me  and  the 
local  atmosphere  would  be  favorable.  I  had  carried, 


118  THE  IKON  HUNTER 

or  claimed  to  have  carried,  eight  of  the  fifteen  counties 
and  had  that  many  delegations  on  hand.  That  did  not 
give  me  a  majority  because  the  larger  counties,  such  as 
Houghton,  Marquette  and  Menominee,  were  against  me 
and  had  candidates  of  their  own.  It  was  while  the 
convention  was  being  organized  that  I  discovered  the 
real  part  that  I  had  been  expected  to  play.  The  old 
bosses,  such  as  Hubbell,  Duncan,  Parnell,  Maitland, 
Walters  and  others,  were  willing  to  beat  Uncle  Samuel, 
but  they  did  not  want  me  by  a  jugful.  In  fact,  if  it 
came  to  a  show  down  between  Stephenson  and  me,  they 
would  have  been  for  gruff  old  Uncle  Sawlog,  who  at 
worst  was  one  of  them  in  being  a  part  of  the  "  inter- 
ests," only  then  they  did  not  call  them  that.  I  had 
more  votes  than  any  other  candidate  and  was  permitted 
to  organize  the  convention,  or  at  least  to  think  that  I  did. 
Voting  started.  Once  I  came  within  four  of  the  nomi- 
nation. That  was  my  high  water  mark. 

Report  was  made  to  my  floor  managers  that  John, 
Duncan,  of  Houghton,  really  preferred  Uncle  Sam  to 
Carl  Sheldon,  their  home  candidate.  In  fact,  the  fight 
was  not  the  field  against  Stephenson  any  more  than  it 
was  the  field  against  me.  I  was  consulted  and  decided 
that  the  Duncan  report  bore  earmarks  of  truth.  We 
threw  my  support  solidly  to  Sheldon,  and  he  was  chosen. 
I  had  gone  into  the  hall  at  the  rear  and  stood  behind 
Sheldon,  who  was  seated  in  a  chair.  When  the  lid  blew 
off,  as  Sheldon  was  nominated,  I  gave  a  big,  bursting, 
boyish  yell  of  victory  and  grabbed  Sheldon's  hat,  as  I 
thought.  Waving  it  in  the  air  I  somehow  got  sight  of 
it.  Not  a  hat  at  all,  but  a  wig.  His  toupee  had  burst 
its  shoe  wax  moorings.  Snatched  as  baldheaded  as  a 
billiard  ball,  there  he  sat  in  a  gold-mouthed,  glowering 
rage,  caring  nothing  about  his  honor  and  only  seeking 


A  POLITICAL  FULCRUM  119 

the  return  of  his  thatch,  which  I  had  waved  aloft  like 
the  banner  of  the  beard  of  the  prophet  at  Goek  Tepee. 

We  had  nominated  a  man  not  only  with  solid  gold 
teeth,  like  the  Sultan  of  Johore,  though  not  set  with  dia- 
monds, but  one  who  wore  a  wig.  I  was  responsible  for 
this.  Would  the  common  people  stand  for  it  ? 

Our  district  was  as  strongly  Republican  as  though  it 
had  been  politically  pock-marked.  There  was  no  doubt 
of  Sheldon's  election  if  he  could  be  kept  at  home.  He 
was.  It  transpired  that  he  had  no  such  native  ability 
as  Stephenson  and  was  not  as  effective  as  a  representa- 
tive. 

As  for  myself,  I  became  a  political  factor,  not  by  vir- 
tue of  either  ambition  or  design,  but  only  because  I  al- 
ways went  with  all  my  might  at  whatever  my  hands 
found  to  do,  and  this  had  not  been  an  exception. 

There  are  no  bitternesses  quite  equal  to  local  ones,  no 
matter  whether  political,  religious  or  of  other  kinds. 
They  come  near  to  one;  there  is  immediate  friction 
which  is  aggravated  by  being  seen  as  well  as  felt.  The 
source  is  always  within  striking  distance  and  that  makes 
for  frequent  striking  and  multiplied  inflammation. 
One  has  to  learn  to  joust  and  like  it;  to  hit  hard  and 
also  take  blows  and  to  discharge  the  whole  matter  as 
soon  as  it  is  over.  Not  adopting  such  a  philosophy  the 
participant  is  either  knocked  down  and  thrown  into  the 
discard,  or  is  made  into  a  grouch,  whose  very  temper 
becomes  his  undoing.  "  Be  just  as  good  an  anvil  as 
you  are  a  hammer,"  was  the  tabloided  advice  given  to 
me  when  a  boy,  by  a  veteran  of  many  a  battle,  who  had 
not  a  mean  wrinkle  in  his  heart  and  then  of  course  not 
in  his  face. 

It  was  a  good  thing  for  me  that  I  learned  this,  because 
I  have  been  pounded  incessantly  from  youth  until  the 


120  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

present,  and  really  I  think  I  have  improved  all  the  time 
in  every  way.  While  leaving  me  very  far  from  the 
unattainable  on  earth  goal  of  human  perfection,  I  have 
enjoyed  going  on  the  way. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE    SACRIFICE    OF    GENERAL    ALGER    TO    APPEASE 
POLITICAL    BLOOD    HOWLERS 

THE  Hispano-American  War  broke.  I  was  in 
Spain  when  the  Maine  was  blown  up.  Proceed- 
ing almost  directly  to  Egypt  I  found  there  John 
Hay  and  Dr.  James  B.  Angell.  I  was  not  of  their 
party,  but  went  to  Damascus  at  the  same  time  that  they 
did  and  also  up  the  Nile.  When  I  returned  to  Cairo 
I  found  a  letter  from  General  Alger  asking  me  to  re- 
turn home  and  on  the  way  to  obtain,  if  possible,  certain 
information  in  Italy,  France,  Spain,  Germany  and  par- 
ticularly in  England.  Our  Government  had  reports 
from  its  officials  upon  phases  of  conditions  in  those  coun- 
tries and  wished  the  views  of  others  and  facts  they  might 
gather  to  use  in  checking  up. 

I  found  everywhere  I  went  in  Italy  a  profound  and 
natural  sympathy  for  Spain.  In  Germany  I  found  the 
people  and  many  officials  friendly  to  the  United  States. 
In  Spain  I  was  to  ascertain  what  might  be  their  ability 
to  sustain  the  war,  and  reported  great  internal  weakness, 
both  of  physical  power  and  political  harmony.  Her 
colonies  had  drained  Spain  of  her  honor  and  her  young 
manhood  until  to  lose  them  was  welcomed.  Their  gov- 
ernment had  been  used  as  a  means  to  political  debt  pay- 
ing, and  the  feeling  was  that  nobody  higher  up  went  to 
the  colonies  except  to  feather  his  nest. 

I  did  witness  a  funny  incident  in  Huelva.  A  story 

121 


122  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

teller  was  entertaining  a  big  crowd  talking  about  the 
war.  He  told  them  that  America  was  about  the  size  of 
Andalusia  and  that  the  people  were  all  shopkeepers; 
rich,  dishonest,  cowardly  and  soft-handed.  One  big 
warship  they  had,  he  said,  and  upon  it  they  would  sail 
forth  to  battle  with  the  Spanish  navy.  In  just  a  little 
bit  their  blood  would  flow  like  the  juice  of  a  crushed 
grape,  and  the  war  would  be  over,  and  Spain  would  have 
America  in  her  possession  again  as  she  did  before  it 
was  stolen  from  her.  The  crowd  cheered  this  recital 
with  sharpened  screams. 

My  surprise  was  complete  in  England.  So  far  as  I 
could  determine  the  government  was  diplomatically 
friendly,  but  the  people  sympathized  with  Spain.  I 
talked  with  hundreds  of  them  of  all  strata.  We  had 
no  friends  among  them  so  far  as  I  could  find.  On  the 
English  steamer,  upon  which  I  returned  to  America,  I 
canvassed  every  passenger  and  did  not  find  one  friend. 
They  hoped  the  Yankees'  swelled  heads  would  be  re- 
duced and  freely  predicted  final  victory  on  the  sea  for 
the  Spaniards. 

Proceeding  at  once  to  Lansing  I  offered  my  services 
to  Governor  Pingree.  He  tendered  me  commissions  at 
three  different  times  and  on  one  occasion  he  was  sup- 
ported by  General  E.  M.  Irish  in  urging  me  to  accept.  I 
had  received  some  military  training  in  the  College  Ca- 
dets at  Purdue  under  Dr.  Harvey  W.  Wiley,  as  captain, 
and  I  was  eager  to  go  to  war.  Just  as  I  was  about  to 
accept  a  commission,  William  Jennings  Bryan  became 
a  colonel.  Thereupon  several  of  my  friends,  who  by 
ridicule  and  otherwise  had  been  endeavoring  to  dissuade 
me  from  going,  remarked  with  disgust  that  every  cheap 
politician  in  the  country  was  grandstanding  the  war. 
Somehow  or  other  that  shot  struck  home;  not  that  I 


SACKIFICE  OF  GENERAL  ALGER     123 

thought  of  Mr.  Bryan  as  a  cheap  politician,  but  I  knew 
the  place  offered  to  me  was  earnestly  sought  by  several 
better  equipped  than  I  was,  and  it  began  to  impress  me. 
So  I  refused  the  commission,  but  offered  to  enlist  as  a 
private.  The  Governor,  who  was  a  practical  soldier, 
told  me  the  time  might  come  when  I  could  do  that  with 
propriety,  but  that  just  now  I  could  render  better  serv- 
ice at  home.  As  a  result,  I  became  active  in  organiz- 
ing and  assisted  in  raising  two  companies,  the  officers 
of  which  the  Governor  consulted  with  me  about  before 
he  named  them. 

Quickly  the  war  was  over.  There  had  not  been  a  bat- 
tle severe  enough  to  attract  public  attention  from  the 
minor  discomforts  of  war :  sickness  in  camp  and  quality 
of  food.  Some  one  found  a  can  of  Chicago  corned  beef 
that  emitted  gas  when  it  was  punctured  for  opening.  It 
was  one  of  the  few  cans  that  did  not  stand  the  sub- 
tropics.  A  round  robin  was  hatched  in  Cuba.  Once 
started  there  was  an  epidemic  of  criticism.  There  had 
to  be  a  scapegoat  of  the  administration.  General  Alger, 
of  Michigan,  was  Secretary  of  War.  He  was  a  Civil 
War  veteran  with  a  brilliant  record,  had  subscribed 
thousands  to  the  McKinley  campaign  fund  when  Mark 
Hanna  was  raising  it,  and  was  really  possessed  of  solid 
ability  and  sound  sense.  Although  he  wrought  himself 
into  a  sick  bed  and  continued  to  work  when  unfit  and 
endangering  his  life  as  much  as  upon  a  battlefield,  the 
storm  settled  upon  him.  Every  result  of  the  ante- 
bellum carelessness,  inefficiency,  insufficiency  and  unpre- 
paredness  was  charged  up  to  him. 

One  day  soon  after  the  last  private  staggered  off  the 
transports  at  Montauk  Point,  I  received  a  telegram  from 
the  Secretary  of  War  asking  me  to  come  to  Patterson, 
New  Jersey,  where  he  was  to  spend  a  week-end  at  the 


124  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

home  of  Vice-President  Hobart.  I  proceeded  there  at 
once.  General  Henry  M.  Duffield,  of  Detroit,  had  been 
summoned  also.  He  was  not  only  a  friend  but  an  inti- 
mate political  adviser  of  General  Alger,  and  a  depend- 
able, influential  and  intellectual  gentleman.  It  did  not 
take  us  long  to  ascertain  that  President  McKinley  had 
yielded  to  the  pressure  and  had  made  up  his  mind  to 
dump  his  Secretary  of  War  as  a  sacrifice.  He  had 
asked  Vice-President  Hobart  to  break  the  news  to  Gen- 
eral Alger,  and  that  was  the  object  of  the  week-end  con- 
ference. When  Hobart  told  Secretary  Alger  the  lay 
of  the  land,  the  General's  care  at  losing  his  place  in  the 
cabinet  was  as  nothing  compared  with  his  personal  dis- 
appointment in  McKinley.  It  was  the  only  time  I  ever 
heard  General  Alger  swear  and  it  was  rather  pleasant 
to  listen  to  him  as  he  relieved  his  feelings. 

"  Why,  it  was  as  late  as  Thursday  that  the  President 
put  his  arms  around  me  and  told  me  not  to  pay  any 
attention  to  the  attacks  of  the  press,"  he  said,  sadly  and 
bitterly. 

Continuing,  General  Alger  said  the  President  told 
him  of  his  confidence  and  admiration. 

"  When  I  offered  to  resign,  which  I  did  in  good 
heart,"  said  Secretary  Alger,  "  the  President  would  not 
hear  of  it,  and  professed  to  be  pained  and  embarrassed 
by  the  idea  and  asked  me  as  a  favor  to  say  no  more  about 
it  and  not  to  think  of  leaving  the  cabinet." 

Vice-President  Hobart  told  me  that  the  President 
had  made  up  his  mind  some  time  before  that  he  would 
have  to  feed  General  Alger  to  the  clamorers,  egged  on 
in  doing  so  by  Senator  Hanna  and  all  the  administra- 
tion advisers,  but  that  it  was  only  on  the  previous  Thurs- 
day that  he  had  asked  Hobart  to  get  Alger  out  smoothly 
—  the  same  day  the  President  had  caressingly  assured 


SACRIFICE  OF  GENERAL  ALGER     125 

the  General  of  his  confidence,  affection  and  support. 

Of  course,  Vice-President  Hobart  told  General  Alger 
all  the  facts.  It  made  him  so  angry  that  he  decided  not 
to  resign,  but  instead  to  make  all  the  trouble  he  could. 
General  Duffield  and  I  permitted  time  enough  to  elapse 
to  cool  General  Alger's  fighting  blood,  and  then  we  ad- 
vised him  to  resign,  and  to  return  to  Michigan  where  the 
people  loved  him  and  trusted  him,  and  we  predicted  that 
they  would  vindicate  him  by  sending  him  to  the  United 
States  Senate.  Always  amenable  to  reason,  General 
Alger  looked  at  the  matter  as  we  did  and  decided  to  re- 
sign. 

I  asked  him  what,  in  his  opinion,  caused  the  bitter 
attacks  of  the  New  York  papers  to  center  upon  himself, 
when  the  editors  certainly  possessed  the  knowledge  that 
he  was  not  to  blame  for  the  natural  hurts  of  years  of 
loose  departmental  administration,  and  poverty  of  imag- 
ination and  anticipation.  General  Alger  replied  that 
he  was  certain  about  what  caused  it.  Bids  for  trans- 
porting to  Spain  the  Spanish  soldiers  captured  during 
the  war  were  asked  for.  The  shipping  trusts  submitted 
exorbitant  figures.  A  Spanish  steamship  company  pro- 
posed to  do  the  job  for  much  less  and  got  the  contract, 
in  spite  of  threats  made  by  the  robbers.  Thereupon 
certain  of  the  New  York  press  discovered  that  General 
Alger  could  not  be  controlled  and  at  the  same  time  de- 
cided that  he  was  not  competent,  and  would  have  to  go. 
It  was  the  McKinley  campaign  fund  talking  and  its 
speech  was  effective.  NOT  did  it  matter  whether  such  a 
trifling  thing  occurred  as  the  destruction  of  a  man's 
reputation. 

Upon  my  return  to  Michigan  I  saw  Governor  Fili- 
gree and  Secretary  Stone  and  others,  and  arrangements 
were  begun  for  the  big  homecoming  reception  of  Gen- 


126  THE  IKON  HUNTER 

eral  Alger,  that  was  soon  given  to  him  by  Detroit. 
Nothing  could  have  been  easier.  General  Alger  was 
Michigan's  most  loved  citizen.  They  sensed  the  mi- 
justness  of  his  treatment  and  resented,  as  a  quickly  gen- 
erous people  would  do. 

Then  followed  the  working  out  of  the  plans  to  send 
General  Alger  to  the  Senate.  He  sent  for  me  and  re- 
quested me  to  be  his  campaign  manager.  There  were 
many  reasons  why  I  could  not  do  so;  chiefly  I  knew 
that  it  would  be  necessary  to  use  all  the  Pingree  organ- 
ization that  existed,  and  I  did  not  control  it.  General 
Alger  would  not  hear  to  my  objections.  My  appeal 
was  then  to  Henry  B.  Ledyard.  When  I  told  Mr.  Led- 
yard  my  reasons,  and  informed  him  that  in  my  opinion 
William  Judson,  of  Washtenaw,  would  be  the  best  man 
that  could  be  obtained,  he  agreed  with  me,  and  got  Gen- 
eral Alger  to  consent.  Judson  conducted  a  shrewd 
campaign  against  the  McMillan-Ferry  combination  and 
was  able  to  defeat  D.  M.  Ferry,  though  not  easily. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

MY  ASSOCIATION   WITH   HAZEN   S.    PINGREE   PLUNGES   ME 
INTO    POLITICS    DEEPER    THAN    EVER 

IT  was  the  age  superlative  of  riding  on  people's  necks. 
The  strong  rode  the  shoulders  of  the  weak  night 
and  day,  and  the  rich  seemed  only  to  regard  the 
poor  as  beasts  of  burden.  Nor  did  it  matter,  as  in  mule 
packing  and  horse  use,  whether  the  collar  galled,  or  the 
girth  fit,  or  the  saddle  was  on  right,  or  the  pack  was 
properly  cinched  or  whether  the  work  animals  were 
properly  watered  and  fed  or  given  rest  or  taken  to  a 
blacksmith  or  veterinary  or  turned  out  to  pasture. 
They  just  threw  the  diamond  hitch  on  man  and  never 
took  off  the  load.  There  were  more  men  than  mules, 
and  they  were  easier  to  get;  the  supply  was  unending. 
Social  reformers  were  anarchists.  A  disciple  of  Karl 
Marx  and  Rudolph  Engels  was  crazy.  Any  one  who 
agreed  with  Henry  George  was  a  moron.  Herr  Most 
and  Emma  Goldman  should  be  hung. 

Nevertheless,  things  could  not  always  go  on  as  they 
were.  'No  thought  to  speak  of  had  been  even  given  to 
the  idea  that  the  despotism  of  wealth  should  ever  be 
benevolent.  God  works  in  a  mysterious  way ;  yesterday, 
to-day,  forever.  Man  with  brief  authority  and  enlarged 
stomach,  containing  all  the  coarser  passions  and  desires, 
has  deluded  himself  with  the  conceit  that  he  was  doing 
things,  when  all  the  time  he  was  contributing  to  the 

127 


128  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

plan  of  Providence.  Man  has  exactly  the  same  relation- 
ship to  the  vast  thing  defined  as  Universal  life,  as  the 
microscopic  cells  of  the  human  body  have  to  the  life  of 
that  body.  He  is  a  microcosm  of  the  macrocosm. 

He  is  a  cell  and  his  intracellular  and  intercellular 
activities  cause  him  only  to  be  conscious  of  action. 
There  is  no  such  thing  as  inertia  or  he  would  know  that. 
There  is  no  such  thing  even  as  physical  death :  it  is  only 
disintegration  in  order  that  more  perfect  reintegration 
may  occur.  How  wondrous  the  periodic  law,  the  ele- 
ments of  Mendeleeff,  the  triads  of  Dobereiner  and  the 
octaves  of  Newlands  —  business  of  the  three  entities : 
matter,  energy  and  ether,  and  business  going  on  all  the 
time  and,  aided  by  oppression  and  repression  making 
for  localized  power,  men  popped  up  everywhere  who  rep- 
resented something  that  just  would  not  be  poohed  aside 
and  so  had  to  be  reckoned  with. 

Hazen  S.  Pingree  was  one  of  this  sort.  He  was  an 
extraordinary  ordinary  man.  Out  of  the  Green  Moun- 
tains he  came,  a  shoemaker.  Grandfather  in  Revolu- 
tionary War,  father  in  Mexican  War,  and  he  a  private 
in  the  Civil  War.  Fighters.  In  Detroit  he  became 
quite  rich  manufacturing  shoes.  They  ran  him  for 
mayor.  No  one  knew  him  as  a  great  humanist ;  he  did 
not  even  know  it  himself.  Elder  Blades  told  him  about 
it,  and  John  Atkinson  told  him  more.  Charley  Joslyn 
was  one  of  his  young  adherents  who  showed  symptoms 
of  humanity  that  might  develop,  if  he  were  permitted  to 
run  free  and  unhaltered. 

When  Pingree  began  to  find  out  how  things  were  in  a 
social  and  political  way,  he  began  to  raise  the  dickens. 
This  marked  him  as  a  troublemaker  and  undesirable  by 
the  machine.  James  McMillan  was  a  United  States 
Senator  of  Michigan,  and  chairman  of  the  Republican 


HAZEN  S.  PIXGREE  129 

State  Central  Committee.  He  was  a  rich,  Scotch  Ca- 
nadian, whose  money  had  been  gleaned  from  public  land 
grants,  and  playing  the  game  as  honestly  as  it  was 
played  in  that  time  by  the  big  fellows  and  those  who 
parroted  them.  Anything  was  legitimate  during  that 
epoch,  that  would  not  land  a  man  in  the  penitentiary, 
and  the  function  of  lawyers  was  to  steer  their  clients 
so  that  they  could  do  business  and  keep  out  of  jail  — 
but  do  business.  Senator  Stockbridge  had  died  in  office 
with  the  peaceful  consciousness  that  he  had  had  Schuyler 
Olds  pay  for  all  he  got.  John  Patton  had  been  ap- 
pointed by  good  Governor  Rich  to  the  vacancy,  and, 
being  in  advance  of  his  time  in  morals  and  ethics,  he  had 
to  be  displaced,  because  his  fellow  citizen,  Blodgett,  a 
lumber  king,  decided  to  buy  the  place  for  Julius  C.  Bur- 
rows. The  railroads,  and  principally  the  specially 
chartered  Michigan  Central,  at  the  head  of  which,  under 
the  Vanderbilts,  was  the  master  mind  of  Henry  B. 
Ledyard,  exercised  a  large  political  influence  in  the 
State,  often  secondary,  however,  to  the  McMillan  in- 
fluence. Mr.  Ledyard  and  Mr.  McMillan  were  too 
strong  individually,  and  had  too  many  clashing  inter- 
ests, always  to  work  in  harmony. 

General  Russell  A.  Alger,  with  a  disposition  as  sweet 
as  a  good  woman's,  brave  when  he  knew  where  and 
how  to  strike,  cherishing  a  high  desire  to  be  right  and 
do  right,  clean  as  a  man  could  be  and  be  in  big  busi- 
ness in  those  days,  was  a  friend  and  ally  of  Ledyard 
and  also  was  Tom  Platt's  agent  in  Michigan. 

This  is  a  partial  mirror  of  political  conditions  when 
Hazen  S.  Pingree  began  to  horn  down  the  shelves  of  the 
china  shop.  There  had  not  been  a  big  man  in  the  pub- 
lic life  of  Michigan  since  the  passing  of  Zach  Chandler. 
Big  occasions  make  big  men;  just  mean  money  grab- 


130  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

bing  does  not.  The  Pingree  crowd,  and  it  was  as  crazy 
a  crowd  finally  of  irresponsibles  as  ever  was  permitted 
to  gather  around  a  man  whose  greatest  weakness  was  his 
inability  to  judge  men,  could  not  work  with  any  ex- 
istent political  entity.  So  it  worked  alone.  Pingree 
wished  to  be  governor.  It  was  natural  for  a  lot  of 
reasons  that  he  should.  Many  of  the  sycophants  nearest 
to  him  wanted  to  use  him  as  such.  Others  who  believed 
in  him  were  certain  he  had  a  mission.  Such  modernists 
as  Captain  Gray,  of  Glasgow,  and  William  T.  Stead 
spurred  him  honestly.  And  the  "  Old  Man  "  himself 
had  his  fighting  blood  at  boiling  point. 

Every  newspaper  in  Detroit  was  against  him.  He 
had  to  put  up  bulletins  in  the  city  hall  in  order  to  se- 
cure any  kind  of  publicity.  Not  one  of  the  papers  could 
be  induced  to  mention  him  for  governor.  Among  the 
old  liners  he  was  either  a  rattlesnake  or  crazy.  Al- 
bert Pack  finally  lined  up  with  him.  Pack  was  to  suc- 
ceed Burrows  as  United  States  Senator  if  things  came 
out  right.  Pingree  started  on  a  tour  of  the  State  with 
O.  C.  Tompkins,  who  later,  as  warden  of  Marquette 
Prison,  shot  off  some  fingers  of  Holzhay,  the  Gogebic 
bandit.  Very  few  outside  of  Detroit  had  any  crystal- 
lized convictions  about  the  man.  Perry  Powers,  of 
Cadillac,  while  president  of  the  Michigan  Press  Asso- 
ciation, had  made  a  fight  for  my  appointment  as  state 
game  and  fish  warden  by  Governor  Rich,  which  I  had 
clinched  by  waylaying  the  Governor  between  three  and 
four  o'clock  one  morning.  This  had  introduced  me 
into  state  politics.  Consequently  I  knew  Mayor  Pin- 
gree, and  I  had  some  idea  of  what  he  was  up  against. 
When  he  came  to  the  Sault  to  see  me  I  at  once  enlisted 
in  his  cause,  and  agreed  to  bring  him  out  for  governor 
in  the  Sault  News,  which  I  did.  It  took  some  scoring, 


HAZEN  S.  PINGKEE  131 

but  he  finally  won.  I  was  continued  in  the  office  I  held ; 
in  fact  my  term  was  for  four  years,  and  I  had  two  more 
to  serve  when  Governor  Pingree  was  inaugurated.  He 
began  many  reforms  and  had  a  knock  down  and  drag 
out  fight  every  minute  with  the  legislature,  while  it  was 
in  session.  The  notorious  "  Immortal  Nineteen  "  lined 
up  against  him  in  the  senate  and  headed  him  off  at 
every  turn. 

So  it  went  for  two  years.  When  he  came  up  for  re- 
nomination  we  hoped  to  get  him  through  on  a  truce. 
Prospects  were  not  good.  I  went  to  Washington  and 
had  a  number  of  sessions  about  the  matter  with  Senator 
McMillan,  during  which  I  made  the  discovery  that  there 
was  no  reason  to  be  afraid  of  a  United  States  Senator; 
that  even  the  strongest  of  them  are  not  supermen. 

Decision  was  made  that  Governor  Pingree  had  so 
intrenched  himself  that  he  could  not  be  successfully 
opposed  without  more  of  a  fight  than  was  worth  while. 
I  had  a  good  many  reasons  for  desiring  to  be  a  factor 
in  the  second  Pingree  convention.  Principally  I  de- 
sired to  secure  the  nomination  of  Horace  M.  Oren,  of 
my  home  town,  for  attorney  general.  The  idea  was  put 
into  my  head  by  Fred  A.  Maynard,  whose  time  had  come 
to  retire  from  that  office,  which  he  had  ably  filled. 
There  was  no  fight  on  Pingree,  but  there  was  plenty  of 
opposition  to  everybody  else. 

I  succeeded  in  organizing  and  controlling  the  conven- 
tion, and  our  slate  went  through,  of  course  including 
Oren.  I  did  not  know  then  that  the  attorney  general 
has  a  fat  lot  of  state  law  business  to  give  out,  with  the 
consent  of  the  Governor.  It  was,  and  still  can  be,  one 
of  the  most  productive  sources  of  graft. 

Eli  Sutton,  a  son-in-law  of  Governor  Pingree,  seemed 
to  have  his  ear  and  his  confidence  to  a  greater  extent 


132  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

than  anybody  else.  Others  of  the  kitchen  cabinet  were 
Bill  Judson,  of  Washtenaw,  Sybrant  Wesselius,  John 
Atkinson,  Arthur  Marsh  and  Charley  Joslyn.  Now  and 
then  Oren  and  I  would  be  invited  to  the  "  meetings," 
but  I  was  not  often  taken  into  the  inner  circle. 
Whether  it  was  because  they  were  going  to  "  bunk  " 
the  Old  Man  or  do  some  dirty  work,  I  do  not  know,  but 
they  were  careful.  Personally,  I  do  not  think  a  single 
one  of  the  intimates  of  Governor  Pingree  was  dishonest 
intentionally.  Some  of  them  had  supported  him  on 
principle  and  others,  who  were  outside  the  political 
breastworks,  picked  him  as  a  hundred  to  one  shot.  The 
kitchen  cabinet  was  in  disagreement.  Wesselius  seemed 
to  lead  one  wing  and  Eli  Sutton  the  other.  Button 
won  out. 

Wesselius  was  commissioner  of  railroads ;  a  big,  able, 
unpoised  man.  To  my  surprise  that  place,  about  the 
best  in  the  gift  of  the  Governor,  was  offered  to  me.  I 
did  not  want  it.  But  I  had  come  to  know  and  love  and 
trust  General  Alger.  So  I  asked  his  advice.  He  was 
emphatic  in  telling  me  to  take  it.  There  was  some  de- 
lay, not  serious,  in  my  confirmation.  Then  the  office 
was  turned  over  to  me.  When  I  walked  through  the 
door  I  thought  that  about  all  the  equipment  I  had  for 
the  job  was  acquired  when  I  was  one  of  the  Chicago  & 
Northwestern  construction  gang.  Mr.  Wesselius  and 
his  friend,  Fred  Britton,  one  of  the  best  of  Michigan 
newspaper  men,  were  the  only  occupants  of  the  office, 
and  I  was  alone,  so  simple  may  be  the  investiture  of 
authority.  Some  commonplaces  were  exchanged  during 
which  I  observed  that  I  hoped  to  administer  the  office  in 
the  interests  of  all  the  people,  but  with  no  unfairness  or 
injustice  to  the  railroads,  whereupon  Wesselius  snorted : 

"  Young  feller,  you  pray  to  God  and  ask  him  to  look 


HAZEN  S.  PIXGBEE  133 

out  for  you  and  the  people;  the  railroads  will  look  out 
for  themselves." 

Now  I  was  commissioner  of  railroads  of  the  State  of 
Michigan,  with  more  authority,  positive  and  negative, 
if  exercised,  than  any  one  man  should  ever  have. 

As  long  as  I  occupied  the  office  Governor  Pingree 
never  crossed  its  threshold.  He  sent  for  me  the  first 
day  and  told  me  that  he  had  promised  that  Senator 
Frank  Westover,  of  Bay  City,  an  able  man,  should  be 
appointed  deputy  commissioner.  That  was  exactly  the 
time  for  a  show  down  as  to  whether  I  was  commissioner 
of  railroads  or  a  dummy  for  the  Governor,  or  much 
worse  perhaps,  for  some  of  his  advisers.  I  told  him 
that  I  did  not  know  Mr.  Westover,  that  I  had  nothing 
against  him,  that  I  did  not  wish  to  thwart  him  as  gov- 
ernor and  even  would  help  him  carry  out  his  promises 
when  I  could  adjust  actions  to  public  interests.  Then 
I  told  him  1  would  resign,  that  there  would  be  no  feel- 
ing and  that  he  could  appoint  Mr.  Westover  as  com- 
missioner. 

Secretly  I  think  he  liked  my  straight  talk  and  re- 
spected me,  but  outwardly  he  sniffed  and  snuffed  air 
through  one  side  of  his  nose,  and  we  never  became  inti- 
mate. I  did  not  know  then,  nor  until  long  afterwards, 
that  I  had  been  appointed  really  because  General  Alger 
had  asked  Governor  Pingree  to  do  so,  and  Mr.  Ledyard 
had  asked  General  Alger.  Not  another  request  was 
made  of  me  by  the  Governor,  nor  did  General  Alger  or 
Mr.  Ledyard  ever  ask  a  favor  that  had  any  bearing  on 
my  official  acts. 

Governor  Pingree  had  Ealph  Stone  as  private  sec- 
retary. Then  the  position  of  secretary  carried  the  title 
of  major.  He  was  even  then,  though  a  young  man,  pos- 
sessed of  superior  attainments  of  heart  and  mind. 


134  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

While  with  the  Michigan  Trust  Company  at  Grand 
Rapids,  Major  Stone  acquired  valuable  business  experi- 
ence to  supplement  his  academic  law  training  at  the 
University  of  Michigan.  At  the  'Varsity  he  had  been 
an  independent  and  a  leader  among  the  "  non-frats." 
This  was  due  to  a  deeply  set  humanity,  probably  in- 
herited from  a  sensitively  organized  father,  who  at  that 
time  was  a  Unitarian  preacher  in  New  Jersey.  Be- 
tween Major  Stone  and  the  purely  political  crowd  there 
was  always  friction.  The  secretary  was  constant  in  his 
endeavors  to  protect  his  chief  from  the  wolves.  More 
than  once  he  tore  up  wild  speech  manuscripts  that  had 
been  supplied  the  governor,  and  wrote  addresses  to  re- 
place them.  Very  much  credit  for  the  many  concrete 
achievements  of  Governor  Pingree's  administration  be- 
longs to  Ralph  Stone.  I  always  found  it  a  satisfaction 
to  cooperate  with  him,  and  early  I  was  impressed  with 
his  clean  and  clear  and  courageous  thought  processes, 
his  poise  and  good  judgment,  and  his  common  sense 
and  kindliness.  He  had  deeply  at  heart  the  welfare  of 
the  masses  with  no  desire  to  make  political  capital  of 
his  sentiments.  And  yet,  when  he  sought  employment 
after  leaving  the  executive  office,  he  found  that  capital 
regarded  him  as  a  dangerous  socialist,  if  not  an  an- 
archist. This  made  his  ladder  climb  to  the  presidency 
of  the  Detroit  Trust  Company  a  trial  of  his  manhood 
and  principles.  Ralph  Stone  was  one  of  the  first  to 
demonstrate  the  reasonable  and  human  tendency  in 
modern  business. 

Governor  Pingree  made  enemies  in  phalanxes.  They 
dogged  him  everywhere,  as  always  is  the  case  when  men 
in  public  or  private  who  are  worth  while,  assail  the 
established  order,  no  matter  how  bad  the  established 
order  may  be.  Pingree  fought  back  bravely.  The 


HAZEN  S.  PINGKEE  135 

Detroit  Free  Press,  which  has  had  a  history  of  malig- 
nancy unsurpassed  since  the  days  it  hounded  Lincoln, 
and  was  the  organ  in  London  of  the  rebel  Knights  of  the 
Golden  Circle,  set  its  spies  on  his  track  and  after  all  of 
those  who  were  a  part  of  his  administration. 

As  is  often  the  case,  internal  conditions  proved  fatal 
when  external  attacks  are  easily  resisted.  There  was 
crookedness  in  the  Governor's  official  family.  Probably 
the  acts  were  not  more  dishonest  than  many  past  prac- 
tices, but  always  higher  standards  are  being  erected  by 
which  public  acts  are  judged,  and  no  one  had  done  more 
than  Governor  Pingree  to  improve  conditions  in  this 
respect. 

One  evening  I  received  a  hasty  summons  to  come  to 
the  Executive  Chambers.  Assembled  was  every  friend 
of  the  administration  that  could  be  reached.  The  mil- 
itary scandals  had  been  unearthed.  Then  occurred  a 
demonstration  of  the  wonderful,  though  blind,  personal 
loyalty  of  Governor  Pingree.  He  would  not  believe  a 
single  charge  made.  It  was  the  work  of  his  personal 
enemies  who,  because  they  could  not  "  get  the  old  man," 
were  determined  to  ruin  any  or  all  who  were  his  friends. 
And  in  this  view  he  persisted  to  the  last,  finally  pardon- 
ing those  who  pleaded  guilty  so  as  to  give  him  an  op- 
portunity to  do  so,  rather  than  to  trust  their  fate  to  a 
succeeding  governor. 

While  the  grand  jury  was  in  session,  nearly  all  the 
Governor's  appointive  heads  of  departments  took  to  the 
woods.  No  one  molested  me,  because  there  was  nothing 
that  could  be  tortured  into  a  dereliction.  They  hounded 
me  though,  and  I  enjoyed  it,  because  I  have  never 
feared  that  a  clear  case  could  be  made  out  against  a 
man  unless  he  had  left  himself  open  somewhere,  either 
by  carelessness  or  dishonesty.  In  every  way  I  had 


136  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

taken  my  public  work  seriously  arid  had  tried  to  do  more 
than  the  law  required  me  to  do.  It  was  not  enough  for 
me  to  do  what  the  law  specified.  I  tried  to  carry  out 
anything  and  everything  within  my  power  in  the  in- 
terest of  the  public,  that  the  law  did  not  forbid.  Very 
little  time  elapsed  before  I  discovered  that  the  strong 
have  a  way  of  sending  special  representatives  to  a  state 
capitol,  and  that  the  weak  and  unorganized  are  not  rep- 
resented at  all,  unless  public  officials  constitute  of  them- 
selves their  especial  guardians.  That  was  my  view  of 
public  duty. 

One  of  the  first  things  I  had  to  decide  was  whether 
I  would  accept  passes  and  permit  my  subordinates  to 
use  them  also.  In  the  past  it  had  been  the  practice  of 
all  public  officials  I  knew  anything  about,  who  could 
get  passes,  to  take  them,  use  them  and  charge  up  their 
railroad  fare  to  the  State  just  as  though  they  had  paid 
it.  There  was  no  commoner  graft,  and  while  petty  in 
one,  it  amounted  to  a  big  total  when  all  did  it.  There 
was  no  law  then  against  accepting  a  pass  on  anything. 
It  was  easy  to  determine  that  the  passes  were  sent  to  me 
as  commissioner  of  railroads,  and  not  personally.  So 
to  each  railroad  and  other  transportation  company  that 
sent  a  pass,  I  wrote  the  following: 

"  Received  as  a  courtesy  extended  to  the  State  of 
Michigan,  to  be  used  as  such." 

And  of  course  I  did  not  charge,  or  permit  to  be 
charged  by  subordinates,  to  the  State,  any  railroad  fares. 
The  saving  thus  made  was  considerable  in  four  years, 
but  it  was  much  greater  in  principle,  because  it  was  an 
index  of  that  right  performance,  which  made  it  im- 
possible for  the  many  who  subsequently  delved  into  my 
record  to  "  get  anything  on  me." 


CHAPTER  XV 

I     BECOME    A     CANDIDATE     FOR     GOVERNOR    TO     SUCCEED 
HAZEN    S.    PINGREE 

AS  the  Pingree  second  term  waned  the  question  of 
a  successor  to  him  began  to  seize  all  concerned. 
The  political  pendulum  had  been  pushed  by 
Governor  Pingree  as  far  as  it  would  go  in  the  reform 
direction  and  was  already  starting  on  a  reverse  oscil- 
lation. The  McMillan  machine  had  received  a  jolt  that 
made  it  rickety.  The  railroads,  between  which  and  the 
McMillan  bund  there  had  been  a  partial  truce,  always 
sufficient  in  effect  before  the  election  of  Governor  Pin- 
gree to  protect  the  transportation  interests  in  the  legis- 
lature and  control  the  appointment  of  the  railroad  com- 
missioner, had  been  badly  shaken  up.  At  the  same 
time,  the  Pingree  organization  had  been  flawed  by  the 
state  militia  exposures.  It  is  always  the  case  that  polit- 
ical chaos  produces  numerous  candidates.  The  mixed 
conditions  during  the  last  year  of  the  second  term  of 
Governor  Pingree  did  not  prove  an  exception  to  this. 
Probably  the  McMillan  machine  showed  the  most  vi- 
tality and  best  cohesiveness.  While  it  failed  to  beat 
Alger  with  Ferry  it  easily  defeated  Albert  Pack  for 
United  States  Senator  with  Julius  Caesar  Burrows. 

Senator  Stockbridge,  who  died  in  office,  was  succeeded 
by  John  Patton,  of  Grand  Rapids.  Governor  Rich 
often  showed  signs  of  independence,  and  this  appoint- 
ment of  Mr.  Patton  was  an  instance.  When  the  brief 

137 


138  THE  IKON  HUNTER 

term  served  by  Senator  Pattern  expired,  his  place  was 
taken  by  J.  C.  Burrows,  of  Kalamazoo.  This  result 
was  a  perfect  mirror  of  existing  political  conditions. 
John  Patton  was  a  citizen  of  unusual  strength.  He  was 
a  lawyer,  a  man  of  culture  and  force,  independent  and 
courageous,  desired  only  the  best  and  acted  upon  well 
considered  convictions.  Naturally,  he  could  not  be 
handled  willy  nilly.  The  politicians  and  interests  had 
no  manner  of  use  for  him  because  they  could  not  use 
him.  Politics  appeared  to  be  a  question  of  profit  of 
some  kind  for  nearly  everybody.  Some  one  more  bid- 
able  than  John  Patton  was  wanted  in  the  national 
Senate.  Mr.  Burrows,  then  for  some  time  in  the  House 
of  Representatives,  was  selected  as  the  man.  Delos 
Blodgett,  a  wealthy  lumberman  of  Grand  Rapids,  for- 
got the  amenities  that  are  supposed  to  subsist  between 
fellow  citizens,  in  the  desire  that  submerged  him  to 
have  some  one  who  would  vote  right  on  the  lumber 
tariff  and  other  things.  Mr.  Blodgett  sought  and  ob- 
tained the  McMillan  vehicle,  which  was  not  difficult, 
because  James  McMillan,  the  senior  senator,  did  not 
look  pleasantly  upon  a  junior  senator  of  superior  cul- 
ture, who  would  not  play  second  fiddle  to  him.  The 
machine  worked  so  well  that  Mr.  Patton  got  the  guil- 
lotine expeditiously.  It  worked  quite  as  well  against 
Albert  Pack,  who  had  lined  up  with  the  Pingree  forces 
and  tried  with  their  aid  to  beat  Senator  Burrows,  after 
his  first  term.  I  had  impotently  supported  both  Patton 
and  Pack. 

With  these  scalps  in  their  belt  the  McMillanites  quite 
confidently  trotted  out  D.  M.  Ferry,  of  Detroit,  as  a 
successor  to  Pingree.  Aaron  T.  Bliss,  of  Saginaw,  had 
the  Alger-Ledyard  railroad  support.  I  was  offered  the 
support  of  one  wing  of  the  Pingree  following,  including 


A  CANDIDATE  FOR  GOVERNOR       139 

that  of  Justus  S.  Stearns,  of  Ludington,  then  secre- 
tary of  state.  It  was  not  long  after  he  had  urged  me 
to  become  a  candidate  for  governor  and  had  pledged 
his  support  to  me,  before  he  decided,  as  was  his  right, 
that  he  would  be  a  candidate  himself.  This  was  the 
result  of  influence  upon  him  by  the  Pingree  wing  that 
was  not  for  me.  It  was  the  mercenary  gang,  and  was 
stronger  than  the  other  following.  Nevertheless,  inas- 
much as  I  had  made  my  announcement,  I  stuck  to  my 
colors. 

James  O'Donnell,  of  Jackson,  a  newspaper  man  of 
standing  and  ability,  who  had  been  in  the  house  of  rep- 
resentatives and  also  had  been  a  candidate  for  governor 
several  times  before,  announced  himself. 

Lastly,  the  commissioner  of  insurance  under  Gov- 
ernor Pingree,  Milo  D.  Campbell,  of  Coldwater,  be- 
came a  candidate.  This  made  six  candidates  for  gov- 
ernor to  succeed  Pingree.  Three  of  them,  Bliss,  Ferry 
and  Stearns  were  by  reputation  multi-millionaires. 
The  other  three,  O'Donnell,  Campbell  and  myself  were 
comparatively  poor  men.  I  was  youngest  of  all  and, 
as  I  view  things  now,  I  was  not  qualified  to  be  governor, 
although  I  am,  even  after  sixteen  years,  unconvinced 
that  I  was  not  as  well  equipped  as  any  of  the  others, 
which  is  not  an  immodest  tribute  to  myself. 

There  ensued  the  wildest  use  of  money  in  politics 
that  had  ever  occurred  in  the  State.  Such  a  fight  as 
Ferry,  Bliss  and  Stearns  put  up  had  never  been  wit- 
nessed before.  The  serpent  of  corruption  made  a  slimy 
trail  all  over  the  State,  and  debauched  and  debauchers 
could  be  tracked  by  the  spoor  of  dollars.  When  the 
thing  got  hot,  delegates  were  offered  three  thousand 
dollars  for  a  single  vote,  and  perhaps  more.  Friends 
of  mine  witnessed  an  offer  of  two  thousand,  five  hundred 


140  THE  IKON  HUNTER 

dollars  to  a  delegate  favorable  to  me,  and  saw  him 
refuse  in  anger.  That  honest  man  is  Oilman  M.  Dame, 
since  then  for  a  time  chairman  of  the  Republican  state 
central  committee  of  Michigan.  That  act  explains  the 
origin  of  my  friendship  for  him  that  began  then  and 
has  subsisted  without  a  break  to  the  present  time. 

I  made  a  red-hot  personal  canvass  as  far  and  as  fast 
as  I  could  go.  With  no  money  to  spend  I  was  not 
tempted  to  spend  any.  O'Donnell  and  Campbell  were 
in  the  same  moneyless  boat  so  far  as  concerned  ability 
to  compete  with  Ferry,  Bliss  and  Stearns.  My  stock 
in  trade  was  my  political  and  administrative  record  up 
to  date.  As  state  game  and  fish  warden  I  had  done  my 
best  at  every  turn  and  had  really  gotten  results.  As 
commissioner  of  railroads  I  had  enforced  two-cent  pas- 
senger fare  laws  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the 
State;  had  clung  to  a  policy  of  grade  separation  con- 
sistently and  doggedly,  only  to  see  it  die  when  I  went 
out  of  office  and  remain  unresurrected  to  this  time  — 
and  had  done  all  the  law  required  and  quite  a  good 
deal  more. 

My  grade  separation  work  had  just  been  tragically 
emphasized  by  an  accident  at  Flint,  in  which  Major 
Buckingham,  Mrs.  Applegate  and  Mrs.  Humphrey  had 
been  killed.  Application  had  been  made  for  a  certain 
grade  crossing  at  Flint.  The  hearing  was  attended  by 
a  large  number  of  citizens  of  that  town,  including 
Major  Buckingham.  That  gallant  gentleman  had 
abused  me  roundly  when  I  decided  against  those  who 
desired  the  unopposed  request.  Special  legislation  was 
sought  and  obtained,  reversing  my  decision  in  effect. 
The  grade  crossing  was  put  in,  and  within  a  short  time 
afterwards  Major  Buckingham  and  his  guests  were 
killed  upon  it. 


A  CANDIDATE  FOB  GOVEKNOK       141 

The  grade  crossing  policy  caused  more  friction  than 
anything  else  during  my  administration  of 'the  railroad 
commissioner's  department.  It  was  an  active  era  of 
electric  road  construction.  Very  frequently  indeed 
there  was  trouble  over  crossings  between  steam  and 
electric  roads.  I  was  called  upon  almost  continuously 
to  grant  hearings,  at  which  appeared  the  best  lawyers 
of  the  State  and  many  capitalists.  One  incident  dis- 
covered to  me  how  the  situation  might  be  made  extraor- 
dinarily profitable  by  one  so  inclined. 

I  had  made  a  decision  requiring  six  grade  separations 
to  cost  ten  thousand  dollars  each,  a  total  of  sixty  thou- 
sand dollars.  The  electric  road  builder  who  would 
have  to  do  this  work  called  upon  me  in  my  office 
early  one  forenoon,  before  the  separation  orders  had 
been  issued.  After  preliminaries  he  said  he  had  come 
to  "lose  thirty  thousand  dollars  under  the  carpet  of 
my  office." 

For  just  a  moment  I  really  did  not  understand  him, 
but  in  the  next  half  second  it  flashed  to  my  mind  that  he 
was  trying  to  bribe  me.  It  was  probably  the  play  for 
me,  according  to  the  story  books,  to  be  insulted  and 
knock  my  tempter  down  and  throw  him  out,  or  do  some 
such  dramatic  stunt.  But  I  only  saw  the  humor  of  the 
thing  and  told  him  that  if  the  money  was  lost  under  the 
carpet,  the  janitor  would  find  it  after  a  while  and  return 
it,  but  he  would  lose  his  interest. 

Disgusted  with  what  he  appeared  to  think  was  my 
stupidity,  he  soon  departed. 

It  was  the  only  time  in  my  life  that  I  have  been 
offered  a  bribe.  He  was  going  to  split  fifty-fifty  with 
me  and  not  separate  the  grades.  A  lot  of  money  to  me 
was  thirty  thousand  dollars,  but  it  required  no  acces- 
sion of  honesty  to  refuse  it;  in  fact  it  was  not  even  a 


142  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

temptation,  and  I  did  not  seem  to  get  for  myself  from  it 
any  real  measure  of  my  true  character. 

The  charm  of  the  governorship  campaign  was  the 
attitude  towards  me  of  certain  personal  friends  and 
particularly  of  my  home  town  and  county,  and  the 
entire  Upper  Peninsula.  I  had  every  Upper  Peninsula 
county  behind  me  except  Luce.  The  two  delegates  from 
Luce  County  were  controlled  for  Stearns  by  Con  Dan- 
aher,  a  fellow  lumberman.  In  the  Lower  Peninsula 
I  did  not  have  much  support,  but  it  was  more  than 
enough  to  offset  the  loss  of  Luce. 

The  convention  deadlocked,  but  not  for  long.  The 
Ferry  forces  decided  early  that  they  were  beaten.  They 
caucused.  Their  leaders  saw  they  might  dictate  the 
nomination  by  throwing  to  O'Donnell  or  to  me.  In  a 
vote  between  us  I  lost  by  two.  If  the  Ferry  delegates 
had  come  to  me  I  would  in  all  probability  have  been 
nominated,  because  I  had  a  large  second  choice  fol- 
lowing, that  would  have  come  to  me  on  the  break  that 
followed.  Power  above  man  pilots  destiny.  Bliss  was 
nominated. 

I  have  always  thought  that  James  O'Donnell  joked 
himself  away  from  serious  consideration.  He  was  a 
fine  man.  In  public  he  was  a  monologist,  and  came  to 
be  regarded  as  a  funny  entertainer.  This  threw  a 
curtain  over  his  solider  merits.  Ecclesiastes :  "  Dead 
flies  cause  the  ointment  of  the  apothecary  to  send  forth 
a  stinking  savor ;  so  doth  a  little  folly  him  that  is  in 
reputation  for  wisdom  and  honor." 

Defeat  for  nomination  as  governor  at  the  Grand 
Rapids  convention  did  not  in  the  least  discourage  me. 
On  the  contrary  it  opened  my  eyes.  The  three  con- 
testing millionaires  had  spent  three  quarters  of  a  mil- 
lion dollars.  Disgust  was  written  as  large  in  the  State 


A  CANDIDATE  FOR  GOVERNOR       143 

as  shame  had  been.  It  is  as  though  the  individual  is 
a  phagocyte  and  sustains  the  same  relation  to  the  great 
body  politique  as  that  bacillus  does  to  the  human  body. 
When  a  sickness  threatens  death  they  are  stimulated 
as  never  before  to  work  to  save  it. 

I  shared  in  the  common  desire  for  better  and  cleaner 
things.  This  was  intense  enough  within  me  to  cause 
me  to  decide  that  I  would  get  out  of  politics  and  remain 
out  until  I  could  participate  as  an  independent. 

There  were  only  two  ways  then,  and  that  is  all  there 
are  now,  by  which  a  man  could  become  a  candidate. 
One  was  as  the  creature  of  interested  persons,  and  the 
other  was  upon  one's  own  initiative  as  an  independent. 
In  fact,  the  latter  way  offered  the  only  possible  chance 
for  freedom  in  public  service.  I  could  not  see  how  a 
poor  man  could  be  wholly  independent  under  our  polit- 
ical systems  and  conditions  then,  and  cannot  now.  The 
thing  then  for  me  to  do,  I  decided,  was  to  make  enough 
money  to  be  independent  and  to  make  it  by  methods  so 
honest  that  I  could  not  reproach  myself,  or  be  assailed 
by  an  opponent  or  an  enemy.  It  took  me  twelve  years 
to  do  it. 

My  next  decision  was  to  reenter  politics,  or  at  least 
to  offer  to  serve,  and  particularly  to  expose  and  oppose 
all  forms  of  political  corrupt  practice.  My  happiness 
was  not  to  be  found  in  holding  office,  but  in  work  of  any 
kind  and  in  any  and  all  directions,  so  far  as  my  power 
went,  that  would  help  mankind.  Nor  could  I  convince 
myself  that  I  was  unselfish,  because  I  soon  found  that 
there  is  more  joy  in  offering  to  serve  and  in  conscien- 
tiously doing  one's  best  when  opportunity  comes.  I 
was  after  that  sweetness. 

Upon  all  sides  I  saw  the  hardness  and  the  misery 
and  the  discontent  of  wealth.  Strong  men  would  phle- 


144  THE  IKON  HUNTER 

botomize  everybody  they  could,  and  then  in  an  anguish 
of  remorse,  seek  happiness  as  professional  philanthro- 
pists through  channels  of  belated  restoration,  only  to 
gather  disappointment  and  increased  bitterness. 

Somewhere  between  too  much  and  too  little  is  the 
economic  Utopia  that  Solomon  quotes  Agur,  the  son  of 
Jakeh,  as  praying  for  when  he  asks :  "  Give  me  neither 
poverty  nor  riches." 

That  also  became  my  prayer.  I  was  thus,  I  think, 
prevented  from  having  an  incurable  case  of  money 
grubbing.  When  my  possessions  got  to  the  fairly  cer- 
tain value  of  two  hundred  fifty  thousand  dollars,  I  di- 
verted all  my  strength  to  public  service  in  any  way  that 
gave  me  a  chance. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE     POETRY,     CHARM,     ROMANCE     AND    USEFULNESS    OF 
IRON    ORE 

FOK  a  period  of  years  Indian  after  Indian  brought 
me  samples  of  ore:  iron,  copper,  nickel,  silver, 
gold.  I  paid  no  attention  to  any  but  iron.  It 
is  as  staple  as  wheat.  During  the  period  of  no  snow 
I  searched  the  wilderness  of  the  North  from  one  rock 
zone  to  another,  and  always  and  ever  east  to  west  across 
the  continental  formation.  In  the  winter  I  traveled. 
My  idea  was  to  know  my  own  country  first  hand.  I 
found  it  did  not  cost  any  more  to  travel  than  to  remain 
stationary.  In  fact  I  was  able,  by  increased  knowl- 
edge, to  earn  more  by  traveling  than  if  I  had  stayed  at 
home.  It  appeared  to  be  just  as  easy  in  traveling  to 
have  my  wife  with  me,  as  to  leave  her  alone  at  home, 
and  we  were  both  benefited,  and  it  made  us  more  con- 
tented and  happy.  Searching  for  further  justification 
for  travel,  I  happened  to  hit  upon  the  rather  lugubrious 
fact  that  the  world  does  very  well  without  all  of  us, 
so  far  as  we  know,  after  death,  and  if  so,  it,  or  any 
portion  of  it,  ought  to  spare  us  handily  during  life. 

Very  early  I  discovered  that  in  order  to  get  the  most 
good  from  travel,  it  was  necessary  to  have  clear-cut  ob- 
jects and  purposes.  So  I  decided  to  visit  all  the  places 
in  the  world,  if  possible,  where  iron  ore  is  produced  in 
commercial  quantities.  A  big  undertaking.  Natu- 
rally that  involved  a  study  of  other  lands,  their  resources 

145 


146  THE  IKON  HUNTER 

and  geology.  Even  that  was  not  enough,  so  I  added  the 
study  of  government,  and  particularly  the  methods  of 
Colonial  government  adopted  by  those  powers  chiefly 
engaged  in  colonizing  the  world :  Great  Britain,  France, 
Eussia,  Germany,  Italy,  Portugal,  Spain  and  Holland. 
At  one  time  or  another,  those  peoples,  possibly  except- 
ing Teuton  and  Slav,  have  ruled  the  earth. 

From  the  study  of  modern  government  it  was  an  easy 
step  to  interest  in  the  history  of  the  yesterdays,  and  in 
dramatic  personages  such  as  Tsin,  Akbar,  Attila,  Alaric, 
Timur  Leng,  Genghiz  Khan,  Alexander,  Xenophon, 
Cyrus,  Xerxes,  Napoleon  and  other  first-class  map- 
makers  of  the  world.  As  a  result  I  found  myself  travel- 
ing and  studying  the  world  in  the  winter  and  threading 
a  trackless  wilderness  in  the  summer.  It  was  an  ideal 
and  also  a  selfish  life,  which  I  was  determined  to  desert 
as  soon  as  I  had  visited  every  country  in  the  world  that 
had  its  own  autonomy,  and  every  suzerain  state  and 
colony  of  any  importance.  This  my  wife  and  I  com- 
pleted to  our  satisfaction  in  1013,  after  more  than 
thirty  years  of  travel.  Before  we  left  our  own  country, 
we  went  into  every  State  and  to  Alaska  and  also  visited 
our  insular  possessions  as  rapidly  as  they  were  secured 
by  the  United  States. 

There  is  a  romance  about  iron  that  has  always  fas- 
cinated me  and  it  holds  me  yet  as  a  magnet  attracts. 
I  wonder  if  the  courageous  men  who  seek  it  in  the 
bowels  of  the  earth  realize  their  big  part  in  the  life  of 
the  world  ?  Do  the  brave,  bare  bodies,  that  reflect  the 
furnace  light  and  the  gloating  glow  of  the  smelter,  do 
their  work  because  of  a  subtle  subconsciousness  of  the 
fact  that  the  wheels  of  the  world  and  civilization  would 
stop  if  they  stopped? 

Iron  ore  and  steel  are  of  greater  importance  than 


USEFULNESS  OF  IBON  OEE          147 

wheat,  because  there  are  many  good  substitutes  for 
wheat.  There  is  none  for  iron  ore.  It  has  a  glory  of 
usefulness  all  its  own.  Those  who  are  associated  with 
its  production  should  know  of  the  dignity  of  their  call- 
ing; should  realize  it  and  then  their  hearts  and  souls 
would  fill  their  big  bodies  until  brawn  and  spirit  are 
one,  as  an  instrument  of  the  joy  of  existence  in  the  keen 
sense  of  service.  There  would  be  a  brotherhood  of  iron 
that  could  not  know  strife  if  the  totality  of  performance 
could  be  shown  to  the  eyes  of  all  those  who  inhabit  the 
world  of  steel.  Nor  would  its  boundaries  be  smaller 
than  those  of  the  earth,  for  it  would  tie  together  the  best 
developed  American  iron  worker  and  the  lowliest 
African. 

If  the  miner  who  blasts  or  shovels  or  trams  a  pound 
of  iron  ore  could  follow  it  to  its  destinations  and  uses, 
he  would  at  once  conclude  that  he  is  one  of  the  most 
valuable  and  important  factors  of  society.  This  is  the 
truth.  The  same  is  true  of  the  furnaceman  and  the 
foundryman,  the  worker  in  the  steel  mill,  and  the 
artisan  of  keen  eye  and  trained  hand  who  fashions  the 
products  of  iron  ore  with  mind  and  heart.  True  also 
of  the  master  captains,  who  have  organized  the  armies 
of  the  age  of  steel  and  iron,  and  who  are  really  learning 
that  their  industrial  soldiers  give  up  their  lives  even 
more  bravely  upon  the  battlefields  of  constantly  applied 
human  effort,  than  those  who  rend  each  other  at  the  can- 
non's mouth. 

From  this  realization  it  is  only  a  step  further  to  the 
practical  conviction  that  they  are  entitled  to  even  more 
consideration;  to  continuous  employment  (what  kind 
of  an  army  would  it  be  that  did  not  keep  its  soldiers 
constantly,  but  depended  upon  picking  them  up,  helter 
skelter,  when  needed),  to  a  minimum  wage,  to  old  age 


148  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

insurance  and  pensions,  to  adequate  compensation  for 
injury  and  death  resulting  from  the  risks  of  their  work, 
to  sanitary  housing  and  moral  environments.  Menaces 
such  as  saloons  are  being  removed.  All  of  these  things 
are  of  the  moment.  At  first  they  were  adopted  because 
it  is  good  business.  Already  they  are  reaching  the 
deeper  and  finer  source  of  their  cause  in  the  hearts  and 
souls  of  mankind;  in  taking  intimately  home  of  the 
law  of  laws:  I  am  my  brother's  keeper.  And  this 
must  comprehend  social  kindnesses  as  well  as  economic 
guardianship. 

When  industry  was  young,  master  and  servant  com- 
posed the  family.  There  was  friendship  and  acquaint- 
ance and  sympathy.  When  growth  reached  such  an 
extent  that  the  master  could  not  know  his  many  servants 
and  feel  for  them  deeply,  labor  troubles  began  to  beget. 
With  the  advent  of  artificial  masters,  corporations  born 
by  the  law,  marblesque  and  lacking  human  responsi- 
bility, the  hiatus  between  master  and  servant  widened 
almost  unbridgeably.  The  cure  is  coming;  is  on  the 
way ;  has  already  arrived  sporadically,  in  the  re-human- 
izing of  industry. 

Only  can  this  finally  be  achieved  by  the  master 
thinking  as  the  servant  thinks,  and  the  servant  thinking 
as  the  master  thinks.  There  will  then  be  no  master  and 
servant  as  now  defined.  Rather  there  will  be  such  a 
mutualization  as  will  make  for  leader  and  led;  for 
helper  and  helped. 

Famished  are  the  masses  for  want  of  human  recog- 
nition and  consideration.  They  unconsciously  resent 
arrogance  and  overlordship  with  its  coldness  and  auto- 
cracy; even  the  benevolent  despotism  of  money.  In 
America  this  is  more  true  than  it  is  in  other  countries. 

Hunger  for  freedom,  for  equality,  for  opportunity, 


USEFULNESS  OF  IKON  ORE          149 

for  escape  from  the  oppression  of  false  human  pride  has 
milked  the  best  of  the  earth  into  our  national  pail. 
Here  they  swiftly  obtain  and  ravenously  cherish  the 
wholesome  idea  that  one  man  is  as  good  as  another.  To 
believe  that  way ;  aye,  to  feel  it  in  their  heart  of  hearts, 
is  why  they  have  come  here  from  the  valleys  and  moun- 
tains of  the  earth. 

Then  when  they  see  Old  Man  Slobson's  son  Andy 
throwing  on  dog,  chest  swelled,  elephantiasis  of  the  cra- 
nium, hard  of  voice  and  glassy  of  eye,  bossing  them 
around  like  dogs,  running  over  their  children  in  his 
automobile  and  running  over  them  in  his  manner,  the 
very  devil  in  them  is  aroused.  They  have  known  Old 
Man  Slobson  since  boyhood;  worked  underground  and 
on  the  surface  with  him,  and  they  know  that  Andy  is  no 
better  than  they  are. 

But  he  is  stronger,  he  can  drive  them;  yes,  and  he 
can  also  enrage  them.  The  artificial  master  without 
heart  or  conscience  has  set  Andy  up  over  them  to  grind 
their  bodies  and  their  souls.  As  an  emolient  to  passion 
they  do  build  libraries  and  clubs  and  schools,  and  gym- 
nasia and  such  things,  and  these  are  all  very  well,  but 
they  mean  nothing  at  all  in  the  way  of  removing  the 
sharp  instruments,  pride  and  power,  that  are  digging 
away  at  the  tender  spots  in  labor's  manhood. 

Everything  physical  may  be  supplied  to  those  who 
work  under  bosses,  good  wages  enough  and  all,  and  they 
will  remain  discontented  and  rebellious  until  the  human 
touches  are  supplied:  love,  fraternity,  association,  kind 
words  and  deeds  from  the  heart  and  not  from  the  pocket 
book ;  real  interest  transcending  commercial  concern. 

There  never  has  been  labor  trouble  where  there  has 
been  personal  understanding,  personal  acquaintance,  and 
personal  friendship,  regard  and  respect  between  em- 


150  THE  IKON  HUNTER 

ployer  and  employee.  I  know,  because  I  have  been  an 
employee  with  pick  and  ax  and  barrow  and  shovel,  and 
many  a  time  I  have  felt  like  smashing  the  head  of  an 
arrogant  boss,  not  because  I  was  hungry,  but  because  I 
was  not  treated  as  considerately  as  I  would  have  been  if 
I  had  been  a  brute. 

I  guess  we  got  off  the  iron  ore  trail,  but  not  far,  for 
it  leads  into  the  hearts  and  minds  of  men,  as  well  as  into 
their  arms  and  backs  and  purses. 

There  is  war,  that  leveler  of  society ;  the  great  master 
surgeon  of  nations,  operating  upon  the  earth  as  the  in- 
dividual surgeon  operates  on  the  body.  The  knife  is 
guided  by  the  same  unerring  hand,  directed  by  the  All- 
seeing  eye,  and  as  the  layman  cannot  see  and  know  the 
mysteries  of  the  hospital  operating  room,  just  so  we 
cannot  comprehend  the  purposes  of  the  Great  Surgeon 
of  the  universe. 

Into  cannon  and  into  the  surgeon's  knife  enter  iron 
ore.  The  bellowing  death  of  one  and  the  delicate  life- 
saving  of  the  other,  involves  the  use  of  steel.  They 
were  a  lump  of  iron  ore  yesterday.  Great  locomotives 
made  from  iron  rush  over  rails  of  iron  ore,  performing 
missions  of  peace  and  war.  Harvest  fields  are  gambo- 
gian  in  their  ripeness  and  renitent  until  the  reaping 
machines  come.  Then  they  lie  down  peacefully  with 
that  child  of  iron  ore. 

When  the  Crusader  dreamed  and  gave  his  life  to 
recover  the  land  of  Christ,  the  sword  that  gleamed  with 
the  glory  of  heaven  and  the  zeal  of  deep  desire  was  a 
thing  of  iron  ore.  The  bread  we  eat  is  baked  in  pans 
made  from  iron  ore,  in  ovens  made  from  iron  ore. 
Our  span  of  life  is  ticked  off  by  springs  of  iron  ore  in 
clock  and  watch. 

Huge  pumping  engines,  made  from  iron  ore,  handle 


USEFULNESS  OF  IKON  OKE  151 

water  through  pipes  of  iron  ore  for  all  the  purposes  of 
life.  Ocean  steamships,  made  of  iron  ore,  throb  with  a 
life  that  is  more  than  artificial.  Giant  cranes,  made 
from  iron  ore,  move  about  in  Gargantuan  majesty. 
One  can  look  nowhere  and  think  nowhere  without  en- 
countering manifestations  of  iron  ore  dug  out  of  the 
earth  and  handled  purposefully  by  real  men.  There 
is  iron  ore  in  our  blood  and  body. 

It  is  the  age  of  iron  ore.  Let  those  who  produce  it 
hold  up  their  heads  with  dignity  and  walk  erect  among 
men.  They  give  to  it  their  lives  that  it  may  serve  man- 
kind. No  wonder  the  sewing  machine  and  the  auto- 
mobile and  the  locomotive  and  the  ship  and  all  the 
things  made  from  iron  ore  are  so  human.  They  are 
human,  in  that  they  have  cost  myriads  of  lives  while 
making. 

A  workman's  average  working  life  is  twenty  years. 
Many  labor  for  a  longer  time,  but  few  are  at  their 
best  for  even  twenty  years.  A  prize  fighter's  life  is  ten 
years.  The  same  forces  are  employed  by  the  prize 
fighter  and  the  skilled  mechanic.  Of  course  the  latter 
applies  them  to  higher  purpose.  He  hammers  some- 
thing into  useful  shape,  while  the  pugilist  is  hammering 
something  into  useless  shape. 

The  heart  beats  seventy  times  a  minute;  forty-two 
hundred  times  an  hour;  one  hundred  thousand  times  a 
day;  sixteen  million  times  a  year,  and  as  many  times 
sixteen  millions  as  a  person  lives  years.  Each  time  the 
heart  beats  it  lifts  nearly  a  half  pound  of  blood,  and  all 
of  the  twenty  to  thirty  pounds  of  blood  in  the  body  are 
forced  through  the  heart  and  lungs  every  minute.  Each 
heart  beat  represents  a  punctuation  of  death.  Just  as 
the  tick-tock  of  a  clock  tells  off  a  measure  of  time  that 
will  never  be  again  for  you  and  me,  so  does  each  heart 


152  THE  IKON  HUNTEK 

beat  reduce  the  total  heart  beats.  The  moment  a  child 
is  born  it  begins  to  draw  upon  its  bank  account  of  ex- 
pectant heart  beats  and  expend  them.  A  third  of  life  is 
utilized  in  preparation  for  that  portion  of  the  span  that 
is  useful  in  a  creative  sense. 

Every  time  an  iron  worker,  or  any  other,  lifts  his 
hand  or  bends  his  back,  just  as  many  heart  beats  as  oc- 
cur during  the  time  required  for  these  physical  demon- 
strations are  expended,  and  the  worker  has  given  of  his 
life  in  the  proportion  that  they  bear  to  all  of  the  heart 
beats  he  will  be  vouchsafed. 

In  this  way  may  be  had  some  idea  of  exactly  how 
men  and  women  give  their  lives  in  labor.  It  may  be 
imagined,  if  not  yet  quite  proven,  that  their  lives  enter 
into  their  productions  affecting  the  character  or  quality 
of  the  article  that  is  made.  It  is  well  known  that  the 
work  of  prisoners  never  makes  for  perfection.  The 
more  deeply  one  is  in  love  with  his  work  the  better  the 
product,  and  the  happier  the  performance.  All  great 
inventions  have  resulted  from  freedom  of  effort  ap- 
plied with  love. 

When  we  think  in  this  way  we  are  not  unreasonable 
if  we  think  we  can  detect  man's  life  in  all  those  things 
that  are  commonly  called  artificial,  just  as  we  may  so 
plainly  see  God  in  everything. 

In  order  to  do  the  best  work  it  follows  that  the  worker 
must  love  to  work  and  be  loyal  to  self  and  to  employer, 
whether  the  employer  is  yourself  or  some  other.  This 
feeling  is  possible  in  any  degree  of  purity  only  when  the 
spirit  of  the  worker  is  permitted  to  flow  freely,  without 
being  dammed  by  resentment  and  bitterness. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

IRON    OBE   BACTERIA 

THE  origin  of  iron  ore  is  a  mystery  just  as  all 
things  are  a  mystery,  unless  one  has  faith  enough 
to  find  the  cosmic  cause  in  God.  Iron  is  present 
in  some  form  in  almost  everything.  Economic  geolo- 
gists know  a  good  deal  about  how  it  has  been  gathered 
and  deposited  as  it  is  found  in  the  earth.  Also  there 
is  a  good  deal  yet  that  they  do  not  know,  which  makes 
their  work  all  the  more  interesting. 

Iron  present  in  solution  in  the  subterranean  hydro- 
sphere has  been  deposited  upon  impervious  basements. 
Sometimes  there  have  been  lithospheric  and  atmospheric 
actions  causing  mechanico-chemical  alterations  that  have 
won  the  iron  ore. 

The  most  interesting  and  most  modern  discovery  is 
that  iron  ore  is  made  by  bugs.  European  physicists 
have  known  for  some  time  of  the  existence  of  what  is 
called  iron  ore  bacteria.  Now  the  fact  is  commonly 
accepted  in  America. 

E.  C.  Harder  and  R.  T.  Chamberlain,  well-known 
American  geologists,  mining  engineers  and  investi- 
gators, attribute  the  great  iron  ore  deposits  in  the  Ita- 
bira  district  of  Minas  Geraes,  Brazil,  to  iron  ore  bac- 
teria. 

With  great  respect  for  the  basic  flow  theories  of  Van 
Hise  and  Leith,  and  equal  regard  for  the  similar  ideas 

153 


154  THE  IKON  HUNTER 

of  igneous  influence  held  by  T.  C.  Chamber  lin  and 
Salisbury,  they  did  not  find  sufficient  evidence  of  vol- 
canic intrusions  in  Brazil  and  were  compelled  to  look 
further  for  a  source.  Referring  to  the  Itabira  forma- 
tion Harder  and  Chamberlain  say  in  the  Journal  of 
Geology,  Vol.  XXIII,  Part  I,  No.  4,  May-June ;  Part 
II,  No.  5,  July-August,  1915 : 

"  The  Batatal  schist  represents  a  slackening  of  sedimen- 
tation from  the  rapid  deposition  which  characterized  the 
laying  down  of  the  sands  composing  the  Canaga  quartzite. 
This  slackening  of  clastic  sedimentation  continued  until 
the  close  of  the  Batatal  epoch,  when  very  little  clastic 
material  was  being  washed  into  the  sea  in  the  region  con- 
sidered. The  land  presumably  had  become  so  low  as  to  yield 
very  little  mechanical  sediment,  and  with  the  lowering  of 
the  land  surface  there  was  probably  combined  a  gradual  re- 
treat of  the  shore  line.  Simultaneous  with  the  great  di- 
minution of  mechanical  sediment  deposited  in  the  area 
under  consideration,  there  commenced  a  precipitation  of 
ferric  hydroxide  from  solution,  materials  in  solution  being 
probably  carried  beyond  the  border  of  the  region  of  clastic 
sedimentation.  This  precipitation  may  have  been  due, 
either  to  purely  chemical  reactions  taking  place  in  the  sea, 
or  perhaps  to  the  operation  of  the  well  known  iron  bacteria, 
which  cause  the  deposition  of  ferric  hydroxide  from  waters 
containing  ferrous  carbonate  in  solution.  These  iron  bac- 
teria are  said  to  possess  the  peculiar  property  of  utilizing 
as  food,  the  carbon  dioxide  locked  up  in  very  dilute  solu- 
tions of  ferrous  carbonate.  Ferric  hydroxide  is  left  behind 
and  is  deposited  as  a  sediment.  .  .  .  Not  having  much  con- 
fidence in  the  hypothesis  that  the  iron  oxide  was  precipi- 
tated directly  from  sea  water  by  ordinary  chemical  means, 
we  prefer  to  turn  to  the  iron  bacteria  as  perhaps  forming 
.a  better  working  hypothesis.  .  .  .  Xt  is  now  known  that 
much  of  the  bog  iron  ore  being  formed  in  lagoons  at  the 
present  time  is  the  result  of  the  activity  of  a  certain  group 
of  bacteria  known  as  the  iron  bacteria.  The  iron  bacteria 
include  many  individual  species,  of  which  the  thread  bac- 


IKON  OEE  BUGS  155 

teria  Chlamydothrix,  Gallionella,  Spirophyllum,  Crenothrix, 
and  Clonothrix,  and  the  coccus  form  Siderocapsa  have  per- 
haps been  most  carefully  studied." 

Van  Hise  and  Leith  do  not  claim  that  all  iron  ores  are 
deposited  or  concentrated  by  fire  action.  They  only 
suggest  that  the  great  iron  ore  bodies  in  the  Michigan 
and  Minnesota  ranges  of  the  Lake  Superior  region  have 
come  from  associated  basaltic  lavas,  either  from  the 
magmatic  waters  or  from  chemical  reactions  between  the 
hot  basic  lavas  and  the  ancient  sea  waters. 

Iron  bacteria  live  in  either  standing  or  running  clear 
waters  that  contain  iron  compounds.  Turbid  waters, 
and  those  containing  much  organic  matter,  do  not  offer 
them  asylum.  So  active  are  iron  bacteria  in  making  for 
conditions  that  leave  ferric  hydroxide  behind,  that  water 
pipes  of  cities  where  the  water  contains  ferrous  car- 
bonate have  been  known  to  be  completely  closed  by  them. 

Sheaths  of  dead  iron  bacteria  have  been  found  in 
multitudes  in  limonite  deposits.  Enormous  deposits  of 
several  kinds  of  iron  ore  are  known  to  result  from  the 
work  of  iron  bacteria.  It  is  believed  that  the  vast 
Brazilian  deposits,  among  the  most  extensive  known, 
were  formed  with  comparative  rapidity.  Winogradsky 
offers  a  chemical  formula  in  explanation  of  the  methods 
of  iron  bacteria.  Little  enough  is  yet  known  about 
them.  It  is  not  beyond  reason  that  they  are  at  the  very 
threshold  of  life  origin,  and  work  as  mitosis  and  metab- 
olism, one  set  of  bacteria  performing  anabolism,  and 
another  katabolism  —  one  building  as  the  other  tears 
down.  So  much  for  the  bugs  that  make  iron  ore.  They 
are  closely  akin  to  the  enzymes  that  seem  to  be  every- 
where and  in  everything. 

What  mostly  is  of  importance  is  that  iron  ore  exists 


156  THE  IKON  HUISTTEK 

and  that  it  is  distributed  all  over  the  earth  with  fine 
reference  to  economic  convenience.  Another  thing  is 
known  to  be  a  fact  and  that  is  that  James  J.  HilFs 
statement  that  there  would  be  an  exhaustion  of  the 
world's  supply  of  iron  ore  within  a  few  years,  is  inac- 
curate. There  is  enough  iron  ore  known  of  to  supply 
the  world  for  centuries,  and  not  a  tithe  probably  of  what 
exists  has  been  discovered. 

The  fascinating  truth  that  iron  bacteria  are  manu- 
facturing new  deposits  all  of  the  time  is  not  of  great 
importance  in  bearing  upon  supply,  for  while  it  is  be- 
lieved that  ore  bodies  are  created  with  greater  rapidity 
than  was  formerly  thought,  it  cannot  be  hoped  that  na- 
ture is  now  keeping  up  with  man's  demands. 

It  is  interesting  to  contemplate  that  the  greatest  oper- 
ated deposits  of  iron  ore  in  the  world  are  located  in 
arctic  and  sub-arctic  regions,  or  in  zones  where  nearly 
half  the  year  is  winter,  as  in  the  Lake  Superior  country. 
This  may  be  partially  accounted  for  by  the  potentiality 
of  and  volume  of  commercial  activity  in  the  colder  re- 
gions, for  there  are  extensive  iron  ore  formations  in  the 
tropics  and  sub-tropics. 

Remember  also  that  iron  bacteria  live  in  clear  water 
and  are  not  at  home  in  impure  water.  In  the  colder 
regions  water  is  most  likely  to  be  pure ;  in  hotter  zones 
it  is  most  apt  to  be  impure. 

Along  the  isothermal  of  half  a  growing  year  and 
half  a  resting  year  life  is  intense,  as  the  period  of 
inertia  is  perfect  rest.  Consequently  here  Nature 
seems  to  do  more  work  than  in  the  tropics,  and  of  a  bet- 
ter quality.  This  is  proven  by  the  extreme  tilthfulness 
of  certain  sections  of  the  Lake  Superior  region  and  of 
Siberia. 

There  are  several  kinds  of  iron  ore  if  consideration  is 


IKON  OEE  BUGS  157 

given  to  close  technical  classification.  For  the  practical 
purposes  of  the  explorer  and  prospector  it  is  almost 
enough  to  know  iron  stone  from  other  stones.  Next  he 
learns  that  magnetic  ore  or  magnetite  attracts  the  com- 
pass needle  and  that  hematite  ore  does  not.  By  "  heft- 
ing "  it  in  his  hand  and  by  scrutinizing  the  texture  he 
can  give  a  close  guess  to  its  percentage  of  metallic  iron 
content;  can  come  quite  close  to  it  by  weighing  it  in 
the  air  and  in  the  water,  so  as  to  learn  the  relative  spe- 
cific gravity  of  the  specimen  under  examination.  If 
there  is  much  sulphur  it  is  indicated  by  a  showing  of 
iron  pyrites. 

Phosphorus  is  a  disturbing  component  and  can  only 
be  determined  by  analysis.  Titanium  is  worst  of  all 
and  cannot  be  detected  without  an  analysis.  It  is  al- 
most never  formidably  present  in  hematite.  Upon  be- 
ing powdered,  hematite  shows  reddish,  hence  its  name. 
Magnetite  powder  black  and  limonite,  yellow.  It  is 
not  important  to  recognize  martite  independently.  In 
America  better  ores  rendered  siderite  valueless  for  a 
time,  although  it  is  profitably  mined  in  Austria  and  also 
in  Canada. 

Once  it  was  supposed  that  all  iron  ore  deposits  of 
sufficient  size  to  be  commercially  valuable,  showed  an 
outcropping  somewhere.  This  idea  has  been  abandoned 
for  the  more  accurate  one  that  all  iron  ore  formations, 
near  enough  to  the  surface  to  contain  reachable  enrich- 
ments, show  somewhere  upon  the  surface.  Where  they 
dip  below  the  top  of  the  ground  they  may  be  traced 
accurately  nearly  always  by  the  use  of  dial  compass  and 
dipping  needle;  preferably  the  former.  All  magnetic 
ore  formations  are  easily  mapped.  Zones  of  hematite, 
taconite,  siderite,  itabarite  and  some  others,  can  be  de- 
pended upon  to  have  formational  attraction  that  can  be 


158  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

utilized  very  satisfactorily  in  mapping.  Limonite,  mar- 
tite  and  kindred  bog  ores,  may  possess  no  associated 
magnetism  and  consequently,  if  covered  by  much  over- 
burden, their  discovery  is  accidental,  through  the  chan- 
nels of  excavations  and  erosion  artificial  and  natural. 
Where  igneous  flows  intrude  sedimentary  rocks,  the 
iron  hunter  looks  with  greatest  care. 


CHAPTEK  XVIII 

READING  THE  STOBY  OF  THE  STONES  AS  PRINTED  ON  THE 
PAGES  OF  THE  EARTH^S  SURFACE 

IN  general  iron  ore  reconnoissances  where  much  ter- 
ritory must  be  covered  and  frequent  long  marches 
made,  little  attention  is  paid  to  anything  but  out- 
cropping rocks.  In  this  way  alone  it  is  possible  almost 
beyond  a  doubt  easily  to  determine  whether  a  region 
contains  an  iron  ore  formation.  This  statement  is  pred- 
icated upon  the  fact  of  a  reasonable  frequency  of  rock 
exposures.  In  a  land  of  tundra,  and  stream  and  glacial 
drift,  more  care  must  be  exercised. 

Such  a  section  is  not  attractive  to  the  ordinary  pros- 
pector. Sometimes  it  is  the  case  that  glaciers  have  cut 
off  and  picked  up  extensive  iron  ore  lenses  and  trans- 
ported them  for  hundreds  of  miles.  When  the  travel 
has  been  for  a  long  distance,  the  ore  is  lost  amidst  the 
other  glacial  cargo  or  dissipated  by  water  action  upon 
lateral  or  terminal  moraines. 

It  may  be  possible  that  in  some  instances  the  ore 
may  be  carried  for  only  a  short  distance  and  dumped  in 
large  pockets.  Some  keen  geological  observers  contend 
that  the  iron  ores  of  Michigan  and  Minnesota  have  been 
carried  from  the  Lake  Superior  north  shore  in  Canada 
in  this  manner.  Interesting  speculation  if  nothing 
more. 

When  an  iron  ore  region  is  found,  more  careful  work 

150 


160  THE  IKON  HUNTER 

is  necessary  in  order  to  define  the  length,  width  and  di- 
rection of  the  iron  formation.  Still  more  care  must 
be  given  in  order  to  find  the  richer  concentrations  that 
do  not  extrude  obviously. 

To  learn  the  boundaries  of  the  iron  formation,  the 
territory  may  be  cut  into  sections,  roughly  mapped  and 
then  gone  over  expeditiously  with  eye  for  outcrops,  and 
the  dial  compass  and  dipping  needle  for  under-ground 
evidence. 

The  search  for  "  shipping  "  ore,  that  is  ore  that  can 
be  marketed  to  a  profit,  is  most  compelling,  and  in  its 
prosecution  hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars  have  been 
expended.  The  prospector  does  much  preliminary 
work,  which  is  sometimes  rewarded.  He  follows  every 
creek  and  even  searches  the  river  shores  and  especially 
at  gorges,  where  rock  formations  are  exposed.  Ravines, 
gullies  between  hills,  and  every  depression  that  is 
touched  by  running  water  may  yield  rich  returns  in 
knowledge.  Cavities  left  by  the  overturned  stumps  of 
trees  and  the  material  clinging  to  their  roots,  may  give 
up  secrets  never  told  before.  A  windfall  in  a  forest 
in  an  iron  ore  country  may  expose  as  much  ledge  and 
formation  as  could  otherwise  be  done  by  the  expenditure 
of  thousands  of  dollars.  Classification  and  study  of  the 
pebbles  in  a  stream  bed  should  not  be  neglected. 

I  think  the  greatest  charm  of  prospecting  is  not  the 
hope  of  finding  wealth ;  it  is  the  life  in  the  clean,  unhurt 
out-of-doors.  God  is  in  the  lakes  and  streams,  in  the 
sky  and  stars,  in  the  hills  and  valleys,  in  the  throat  of 
birds  and  even  in  the  ululations  of  wolf,  owl  and  frog, 
in  everything,  of  everything  —  Everything. 

Time  after  time  I  have  come  upon  a  little  lake  set  as 
a  jewel  in  the  hills  that  adorn  nature's  wedding  ring 
to  heaven,  the  circle  of  the  horizon.  No  human  eyes, 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  STONES         161 

i 

perhaps  not  even  those  of  the  stream-Haunting  aborig- 
inal north  man,  had  ever  beheld  it. 

Then  always  I  would  kneel  down  on  the  escarpment 
and  whisper  a  word  of  praise  to  God,  or  I  would  raise 
my  eyes  to  heaven,  drop  my  tump  line  to  my  chest,  lift 
my  hat  and  let  my  soul  pour  out  in  mute  and  helpless 
thanksgiving.  I  wish  I  could  tell  just  how  I  felt  at 
such  times ;  better  yet,  I  wish  every  one  might  feel  the 
same  thing.  No  poet's  ecstasy  or  musician's  rhapsody 
could  be  half  so  sweet,  it  seems  to  me,  unless  they  are 
much  the  same. 

Lying  at  night  on  the  rocks  with  only  the  starry 
heavens  above  me  I  seemed  sometimes  to  hear  with 
Pythagoras  the  music  of  the  spheres. 

Prospecting  in  the  north  country  is  hard  or  easy,  de- 
pending upon  the  prospector,  his  thoughts,  his  desires, 
his  heart,  his  whole  being.  If  he  is  so  constituted  that 
he  can  see  and  feel  the  divinely  raptured  solitudes,  his 
life  will  be  biggened  and  he  will  develop  within  him- 
self those  rich  things  of  spirit,  that  are  worth  more  than 
even  all  the  iron  ore  in  the  world ;  also  he  may  find  the 
iron  ore. 

I  do  not  think  I  have  reminded  you,  as  having  a  bear- 
ing upon  the  selfish  side  of  the  proposition,  that  the  iron 
ore  of  the  world  is  worth  more  in  dollars  and  cents  than 
the  combined  value  of  all  the  diamonds,  gold  and  silver. 
After  manufacture,  it  possesses  a  greater  money  value 
than  all  the  wheat  in  the  world.  But  it  is  so  big  and 
common  and  near  that  it  is  not  appreciated  particularly 
any  more  than  are  pure  air  and  sunlight. 

I  am  writing  these  things  down  because  of  my  pre- 
viously stated  belief  that  more  iron  ore  exists  and  will 
be  discovered  in  the  future,  than  has  been  found  in  the 
past.  North  of  us  lies  the  vastest  unexplored  territory 


162  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

in  the  world.  I  refer  to  the  Dominion  of  Canada.  It 
is  rich,  and  where  it  is  untouched  by  man,  it  is  clean. 
There  is  not  a  drop  of  unwholesome  water  nor  any 
poisonous  insects  nor  reptiles  between  Lake  Superior 
and  the  aurora  borealis.  In  summer  there  are  mosqui- 
toes, black  flies  and  noseeums,  but  these  are  only  trifles 
to  the  real  man.  Even  the  poor  Indian  and  Esquimo 
become  immune  to  them,  and  then  why  should  not  the 
white  man  with  his  alleged  superiority,  if  he  really  has 
the  goods.  To  young  men  of  courage  and  resource  the 
limitless  North  offers  the  cleanest  fight  in  the  world, 
and  if  you  win,  the  fruits  of  victory  are  plenteous  and 
satisfying. 

This  cannot  be  said  of  Michigan,  Wisconsin  and  Min- 
nesota, where  exist  the  largest  and  richest  iron  ore 
deposits  in  the  world,  and  where  much  ore  will  be  found 
that  is  not  known  of  now,  because  the  possible  districts 
are  nearly  all  held  by  private  owners.  The  great  iron 
and  copper  companies  have  had  visions,  and  have  bought 
extensive  holdings  wherever  there  is  a  chance  that  values 
exist.  I  suppose  there  are  two  sides  to  this  state  of 
affairs,  but  I  must  confess  that  I  think  it  is  all  wrong. 

Even  the  lumbermen,  who  bought  the  public  domain 
for  a  dollar  and  twenty-five  cents  an  acre,  reserve  the 
mineral  rights  when  they  sell.  Undeveloped  wealth 
of  this  kind  has  been  easy  to  hold  so  far.  Frequently 
it  has  paid  no  tax  at  all  and  it  never  has  paid  enough. 
In  Minnesota,  before  the  Mesaba  Range  was  discovered 
and  even  afterwards  before  the  range  had  been  mapped 
with  any  accuracy,  lumbermen  cut  off  pine  and  then 
abandoned  their  timber  lands  to  the  State.  In  quite  a 
few  instances  valuable  iron  ore  has  been  discovered 
upon  these  lands,  from  which  the  State  receives  a  very 
considerable  income  in  royalties. 


Author  in  typical  primeval  jungle  on  the  Hudson  Bay  height 

of  land 


.V  f  K  \l 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  STONES        163 

When  the  United  States  Government  survey  was 
made  in  the  Lake  Superior  country,  any  mineral  values 
that  were  in  evidence  along  the  survey  lines  were  faith- 
fully reported.  There  was  not  much  value  then  to 
tempt  them  not  to  do  so,  because  the  country  was  new 
and  without  transportation  facilities  and  generally  un- 
developed. 

Since  that  time  a  great  deal  of  important  geological 
work  has  been  done  by  the  Government,  and  by  the 
States  of  Michigan,  Wisconsin  and  Minnesota  and 
others.  This  work  has  had  particular  economical  pur- 
poses. 

Such  distinguished  names  as  Douglas  Houghton, 
Brooks  and  Pumpelly,  Charles  Wright,  Irving,  Smythe, 
Lane,  Winchell,  Chamberlain,  Seaman,  Van  Hise, 
Leith,  Hotchkiss,  Merriam,  Allen,  Coleman,  Miller  and 
others  are  familiar  to  those  who  are  interested.  At  a 
time  when  most  of  these  men  could  have  turned  their 
knowledge  into  money,  they  have  been  ethical  to  an 
extent  that  is  most  praiseworthy.  I  do  not  know  one  of 
these  who  took  advantage  of  his  chance  to  make  a  profit ; 
not  a  single  quack  among  them. 

Dr.  R.  C.  Allen  was  the  state  geologist  while  I  was 
governor  of  Michigan.  I  asked  him  why  he  did  not 
endeavor  to  trace  the  Gogebic  Range  across  the  Wis- 
consin boundary  southward.  To  the  west  across  the 
Montreal  River,  the  Gogebic  Range  takes  the  name  of 
the  Penoka.  It  has  not  yet  been  very  productive  of 
commercial  ore  bodies.  I  thought  that  to  the  south  or 
southwest  of  Sunday  Lake  and  Wakefield  there  might 
be  values.  Dr.  Allen  had  been  thinking  along  the  same 
line  and  had  even  done  a  little  work.  He  went  into  the 
field  work  there  more  eagerly. 

Soon  he  was  approached  by   Chicago  land  owners 


164  THE  IKON  HUNTER 

who  had  the  title  to  a  wide  area  under  examination. 
Dr.  Allen  came  to  me  at  once  and  asked  me  to  advise 
him  what  to  do.  He  greatly  wished  to  see  such  drill- 
ing done  as  would  expose  the  formation,  hut  he  did  not 
wish  to  engage  in  private  work  for  others  while  em- 
ployed by  the  State ;  nor  did  he  desire  directly  or  indi- 
rectly to  give  data  that  belonged  to  all  the  people  of  the 
State  to  these  few  persons,  in  advance  of  his  reports, 
which  would  convey  the  knowledge  to  the  public. 

I  told  him  to  talk  the  matter  over  with  the  land 
owners  and  see  if  he  could  not  get  them  to  do  drilling 
that  would  be  of  value  to  both  the  public  and  them- 
selves. He  succeeded  in  this. 

The  same  question  must  have  come  to  other  state 
geologists  many  times.  Their  uniform  attitude  of  un- 
selfishness and  fidelity  has  impressed  me  deeply,  and 
has  helped  me  to  higher  planes  of  thought.  Their  fine 
character  has  not  been  known  or  appreciated  by  the 
public  at  large. 


CHAPTEE  XIX 

GREAT  LEAN  OUTCROPPING  OF  IRON  ORE  UNSEEN  UNDEB 
THE    VERY    EYES    OF    THE    WORLD 

THEEE  is  not  in  the  whole  world  a  shore  line 
more  interesting  than  that  of  the  north  coast  of 
Lake  Superior.  Black  and  brown  and  green 
and  gray  and  red  cliffs  guard  there  with  as  much  im- 
portance as  though  they  were  true  continental  shelves. 
At  intervals  crowning  peaks,  like  Cape  Choyye  and 
Noble  Promontory,  stand  up  like  titanic  watch  towers. 
Choyye  and  Garganiua,  as  they  are  called  commonly 
by  the  few  fishermen  and  Indians  alongshore,  supply  a 
clew  to  the  classical  types  of  men  who  gave  them  name. 
Choyye  was  Capuchin,  and  the  other  was  Rabelais' 
monster.  Behind  Gargantua  is  Pantagruel,  never  men- 
tioned by  the  habitants.  Just  above  they  are  better  ac- 
quainted with  Menebozho  and  his  wife  and  two  dogs. 
Never  passes  an  Indian,  whether  Majinutin,  Wauboosch 
or  Nishishinawog  or  Bill  Waiskai's  grandfather,  who 
does  not  place  tobacco  on  the  stone  lap  of  the  Indian 
god,  next  in  power  to  Kitchee  Manido.  I  have  seen 
them  do  it ;  sometimes  hungrily  and  regretfully,  because 
tobacco  is  tobacco  among  them.  But  if  perchance  co- 
incidence would  note  some  evidence  of  the  pleasure  of 
the  Chippewa  Sphinx,  such  as  the  lessening  of  a  gale, 
or  the  arrival  of  a  breeze  after  days  of  doldrums,  the 
stoical  visage  of  the  devotee  becomes  almost  a  smiling 
mask, 

165 


166  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

The  waters  of  Lake  Superior  are  the  coldest  and  the 
purest  in  the  world,  not  even  excepting  Lake  Baikal,  in 
Siberia,  and  in  their  clearness,  that  must  be  seen  to  be 
realized,  they  offer  the  greatest  possible  contrast  to  the 
murky,  sickening,  hot  infusorial  waters  of  Victoria  Ny- 
anza,  the  only  body  of  fresh  water  that  rivals  it  in  size 
and  that  only  in  surface  area. 

Rivers  and  creeks  hurtle  down  from  the  height  of 
land,  which  is  from  seventy-five  to  one  hundred  and 
fifty  miles  northward,  as  though  glad  to  escape  from  the 
salt  demons  of  Hudson  Bay  and  Arctic  Ocean.  These 
rivers  supply  natural  hatcheries  for  brook  trout.  This 
has  given  Superior,  from  Nepigon  to  Batchewaung,  a 
bepurpled  reputation  among  sportsmen  everywhere. 
In  the  streams  and  along  the  rocks  the  trout  fishing  is 
unsurpassed.  Perhaps  the  rock  fishing  offers  the  best 
sport.  Little  jagged  bays  filled  with  talus  make  shad- 
owy places  where  the  shy  fishes  may  hide.  Benches  of 
rock  drop  off  into  many  crystal  fathoms,  and  in  their 
blackened  cracks  lurk  old  speckled  kings  that  rise  to  flies 
eagerly,  and  would  rather  fight  than  eat.  Olivines  and 
epidotes  make  floors  of  verde  antique,  and  pegmatite 
shows  red  as  blood  above  and  also  beneath  the  waters. 
Columnar  basalts,  some  lying  like  corded  wood  and 
others  erect  as  the  Giant's  Causeway,  occupy  what  were 
once  crevasses  in  the  granite  gneiss  and  syenite  before 
the  molten  lava  filled  the  world-making  mold.  Beach 
line  upon  beach  line,  terraced,  mark  the  recession  of 
the  contents  of  the  earth's  greatest  basin  of  sweet  water. 
Underneath  the  boulders  of  these  beaches  icy  cold 
streamlets,  from  some  spring  or  nearby  rocky  pool,  flow 
into  the  lake  with  much  gurgling  glee.  Sometimes  these 
unseen  laughing  waters  are  boisterous,  and  one  is  called 
Noisy  River.  The  last  ice  belt  disturbed  many  of  the 


OUTCROPPING  OF  IRON  167 

ancient  beaches  and  pushed  the  boulders  into  heaps,  at 
right  angles  to  the  lake,  like  so  many  lateral  moraines, 
which  they  are  not. 

There  is  not  a  house  along  hundreds  of  miles  of 
shore.  It  is  a  wild  bright  land  in  the  summer;  death 
on  all  sides  in  the  winter.  Rock-embraced  harbors  are 
at  intervals  of  twelve  to  twenty  miles.  Moose  and  car- 
ibou and  red  deer,  bear  and  wolves  and  wolverines, 
beaver,  otter  and  sable  are  in  the  hinterland,  and  birds 
and  hares  and  little  red  squirrels  and  a  few  singing 
gophers.  Summer  companions  are  black  flies  and 
mosquitoes  and  midgets.  Banksian  pine  on  the  slopes, 
spruce  and  balsam  in  the  valleys,  high  bush  cranberries, 
sand  cherries,  blue  berries  and  Indian  plums  (shad 
bush  berry),  white  birch,  mountain  ash,  pinus  strobus, 
tamarack,  black  currants,  red  raspberries,  pin  cherries, 
skunk  berries,  juniper,  yew,  seven  bark  wood  and  a  lot 
more  vegetation  grows,  and  berries  ripen  in  the  fleeting 
period  between  snow  and  snow. 

It  is  a  wild  race  between  summer  life  and  winter 
death.  Ice  does  not  thaw  in  the  woodland  lakes  until 
June.  Tripe  de  roche  decorates  the  barren  rocky 
tumuli  and  is  sought  by  caribou,  and  when  famine 
shows  its  bony  clutches  man  also  uses  this  rock  tripe 
lichen  for  food. 

Some  day  no  traveled  person  will  be  content  until  he 
Has  seen  the  north  shore  of  Lake  Superior.  Now  only 
a  few  fish  boats  ply  there,  and  to  visit  the  region,  one 
must  either  take  these  or  fit  out  an  Indian  Mackinac 
boat  and  crew,  or  have  his  own  yacht.  Inaccessible  as 
it  is,  the  north  shore  is  visited  by  a  good  many  eadh 
season,  and  sometimes  thousands  go  to  the  often-crowded 
Nepigon.  The  best  stretch  is  the  long  one  between 
Nepigon  Bay  and  Bachewaung  Bay.  An  ideal  way  is 


168  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

to  coast  along  the  shore  in  a  Mackinac  boat,  camping 
and  fishing  at  the  mouths  of  the  many  rivers,  or  where 
attractive  coves  lure  one. 

Rock  fishing  is  the  most  luxurious  and  artistic  way  to 
take  trout.  The  rod  must  have  plenty  of  backbone. 
A  two  and  a  half  to  a  four  ounce  rod  will  give  satisfac- 
tion on  a  stream,  but  off  the  rocks  of  Lake  Superior  a 
rod  weighing  from  five  to  six  ounces  is  better.  Seated 
in  an  Indian  boat  of  good  size  and  plenty  of  free  board, 
because  summer  squalls  are  fierce  and  sudden,  with  one 
Indian  to  row,  and  a  parmacheenee  belle  leader  and 
Montreal  dropper,  the  gods  of  joy  are  awake.  The  In- 
dian, a  Chippewa  and  probably  from  the  tribe  at  Bache- 
waung,  rows  slowly  and  you  cast  towards  the  rocks. 
The  water  is  as  clear  as  plate  glass  and  you  can  see  the 
fish;  see  them  dart  into  dark  places  under  the  rocks 
when  they  are  frightened,  and  also  see  them  plainly 
enough  when  they  tower  toward  the  surface,  not  unlike 
a  swallow  sweeping  in  midair,  as  they  rise  to  the  fly, 
swooping  off  if  unhooked,  or  making  such  a  gamy 
fight  if  caught.  Artfulness  is  necessary,  and  one  must 
be  prepared  to  make  a  cast  of  forty  to  sixty  feet  and 
drop  his  flies  as  lightly  as  falling  moth  wings  that  do 
not  splash. 

I  have  traversed  every  foot  of  the  Lake  Superior 
shore  clear  around.  Rock  study  on  the  north  shore  is 
more  interesting  than  fishing.  I  am  going  to  tell  you 
of  two  interesting  shore  exposures.  If  you  are  young 
and  ambitious  perhaps  you  will  look  them  up  and  trace 
out  their  meaning.  I  know  of  only  three  other  persons, 
one  of  them  Justice  Joseph  Hall  Steere,  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  Michigan,  who  know  them  by  name,  and  they 
have  their  information  from  me.  This,  notwithstand- 
ing the  fact  that  these  rocks  have  been  seen  by  thou- 


OUTCROPPING  OF  IRON  169 

sands.  Dozens  of  times  I  have  rowed  past  them  with 
the  late  Alfred  Noble,  who  was  an  engineer  of  the 
Pennsylvania  tunnels  and  subways  at  New  York,  and 
who  was  largely  responsible  for  the  decision  to  make  the 
Panama  Canal  a  lock  canal  and  not  a  sea  level  canal. 
Mr.  Noble  was  one  of  the  most  able  of  Americans.  He 
was  a  charming  camp  mate  and  most  observant.  Time 
after  time  we  visited  one  of  these  rocks  together  be- 
cause it  is  on  a  famous  fishing  stretch,  and  he  often 
went  to  it  alone  and  with  others,  but  he  never  recog- 
nized it.  Each  season  I  was  determined  to  tell  him, 
and  then  I  would  be  tempted  to  wait  and  permit  him  to 
have  the  satisfaction  of  discovery.  I  went  off  to  Africa 
and  Madagascar  for  a  couple  of  years,  and  while  I  was 
away  Mr.  Noble  took  the  long  rest. 

Those  who  fish  the  north  shore  know  Brule  Harbor 
and  Indian  Harbor  as  well  as  they  know  their  own  back 
yard,  if  they  possess  a  back  yard.  Just  below  Brule 
Harbor  debouches  Old  Woman's  River  in  a  bay,  the 
bottom  of  which  is  covered  with  small  boulders  toward 
Brule,  and  sand  carried  out  by  the  river  on  the  other 
side.  The  boulder  patch  offers  fine  trout  up  to  four 
pounds  and  on  the  other  side  of  the  sand,  where  the 
cliff  rocks  begin,  and  where  for  years  lay  the  wreck 
of  the  Golspie,  a  well-known  tragedy  of  the  shore, 
trout  of  five  and  six  pounds  may  be  killed.  Noble 
Promontory,  with  a  simian's  face  when  caught  in  right 
alignment,  exults  the  landscape.  About  halfway  to 
Indian  Harbor  is  majestic  Cape  Choyye,  and  the  fish- 
ing all  the  way  is  unsurpassed.  There  is  not  a  harbor, 
even  for  small  boats,  between  Brule  and  Indian  Harbor. 
Just  after  leaving  Choyye,  bound  down,  quite  a  deep 
bay  sets  in.  On  the  lower  side  a  well  defined  sand  spit, 
covered  with  stunted  birch  and  conifers,  makes  a  con- 


170  THE  IEO1ST  HUNTER 

trast  to  the  miles  of  frowning  headlands  on  either  side. 
At  the  bottom  of  this  bay,  just  above  a  shelving  beach 
where  Justice  Steere  and  I  were  once  wrecked  by  a  tidal 
wave,  a  little  river  flows  in.  It  is  the  outlet  of  a  chain 
of  pretty  lakelets.  Exactly  opposite  the  mouth  of  this 
stream,  and  concealing  it  from  the  view  of  a  person 
rowing  by,  is  a  big,  picturesque  red  rock.  It  is  simply 
called  the  "  redrock "  and  is  a  landmark.  Standing 
more  than  a  hundred  feet  high  and  some  hundreds  long 
and  wide,  it  is  as  interesting  as  a  Magna  Mater  when 
you  recognize  it  as  hematite  iron  ore.  That  it  is  very 
lean,  so  far  as  percentage  of  metallic  iron  content  is 
concerned,  is  true,  which  does  not  detract  from  its  inter- 
est and  even  value  too,  when  considered  as  evidence. 

As  one  faces  down  stream  on  the  right  wall  of  the 
creek,  a  short  distance  from  this  hematite  exposure,  one 
can  see  a  big  showing  of  carbonate  of  iron  —  siderite. 
The  district  near  these  has  not  been  carefully  examined. 
Eor  years  I  have  hoped  to  find  time  to  do  so,  and  only 
tell  of  it  now  as  my  contribution  in  part  payment  for 
what  I  have  learned  from  unselfish  geologists  and  sur- 
veyors. Somewhere  not  far  distant  should  be  found 
valuable  deposits  of  iron  ore,  so  convenient  for  trans- 
portation as  to  be  unusually  desirable. 

Proceed  with  me  down  shore  to  Indian  Harbor,  on 
around  the  point  and  among  the  islands,  whose  water- 
worn  caverns  contain  agates,  chlorastrolites,  thompson- 
ites,  calcites  and  amethysts  to  be  had  for  the  gathering, 
to  Gargantua.  One  passes  within  a  foot  of  Menebozho 
and  his  wife  and  dogs  if  he  cares  to.  Sail  on  past  the 
hidden  harbor  that  marks  Gargantua,  the  entrance  to 
which  is  closed  by  an  island  like  a  cork  in  the  neck  of  a 
bottle.  There  is  a  lighthouse  on  the  island.  A  couple 
of  miles  below  the  lighthouse  one  comes  to  a  red  shore 


OUTCKOPPING  OF  IKON  171 

line.  It  is  prominent  for  a  mile  or  more  perhaps.  I 
have  never  measured  the  distance.  All  these  reddish 
"  rocks  "  are  lean  hematite  ore.  If  they  were  to  be 
found  on  the  American  side  it  would  cause  a  sensation, 
and  long  ago  they  would  have  been  owned  by  trusts. 

I  cannot  easily  account  for  the  reason  why  these 
really  wonderful  outcrops  are  not  known.  I  took  Kirk 
Alexander  and  Tom  May,  of  Detroit,  to  see  the  big  red 
rock  first  described  and  told  them  about  it,  and  showed 
them  the  siderite  in  the  creek.  Only  Justice  Steere  has 
been  with  me  when  I  visited  the  meaningful  iron  ore 
shore  line  below  Gargantua.  Once  he  sailed  past  it 
with  Michel  Cadotte,  a  north  shore  guide  and  now  in  the 
Happy  Hunting  Grounds. 

Michel  said,  "  See  rocks,  not  rocks,  different  from 
rocks." 

He  tried  to  tell  the  Justice  something  but  did  not 
succeed,  and  it  was  my  pleasure  to  impart  the  secret  to 
him.  It  is  not  unreasonable  to  expect  that  there  are 
richer  concentrations  near  in  a  region  of  such  extensive 
lean  ore  exposures. 

An  iron  formation  skirts  the  Lake  Superior  north 
shore  for  hundreds  of  miles.  Not  much  work  has  been 
done  along  it  because  it  is  in  Canada,  where  the  mining 
laws  act  as  both  guardian  and  deterrent.  Also  interest 
in  this  field  has  been  small  because  upon  the  American 
side  there  has  been  enough  ore  to  supply  the  demand; 
ore  of  fine  quality  and  attractive  economic  location. 

Two  shipping  mines  on  the  north  shore,  the  Helen 
and  Magpie,  near  Michipicoten,  have  proved  valuable. 
Quite  a  little  is  known  about  the  Antikokan  range  in  the 
Port  Arthur  district,  and  enough  exploratory  work  has 
been  done  at  different  places  to  warrant  the  belief  that 
the  north  shore  will  be  highly  productive. 


172  THE  IKON  HUNTER 

Another  iron  ore  region  of  the  north  shore  that  is  lit- 
tle known  comparatively,  lies  adjacent  to  the  Pukoso 
River,  a  half  day's  row  above  the  Michipicoten.  A  lit- 
tle work  has  been  done  along  the  Pukoso  by  Indians, 
trappers  and  lumberjacks,  which  is  as  good  as  saying 
that  not  much  has  been  accomplished.  There  is  an  ex- 
tensive formation  here  of  banded  magnetite.  Some  of 
the  bands  are  quite  wide  and  rich.  One  day  these  ores 
will  be  won  by  electric  concentration  as  at  Moose  Moun- 
tain, Dunderland  and  Lulea.  Here  the  land  may  be 
staked.  Most  of  the  few  claims  that  were  taken  along 
the  Pukoso  have  been  forfeited  because  of  failure  to  ful- 
fill the  requirements  of  the  Canadian  Mining  laws. 

Even  more  attractive  than  the  Pukoso  country  is  the 
hinterland  at  Otter  Head  and  above  and  below.  I  have 
seen  good-looking  surface  showings  over  quite  a  wide 
stretch  of  country  in  this  region,  and  believe  confidently 
that  the  future  will  reveal  iron  ore  and  other  mineral 
values. 

And  so  on  I  could  tell  such  a  long  story  of  the  attrac- 
tions and  prospects  of  the  Canadian  north  shore.  It  is 
a  way  that  every  age  has,  wherein  young  men  contem- 
poraries sigh  and  state  that  there  are  not  as  many  op- 
portunities now  as  when  their  fathers  were  boys.  For- 
ever will  this  be  true.  The  young  man  alert  with  in- 
dustry and  ambition  will  have  more  chances  than  he  can 
take  advantage  of;  the  other  kind  would  not  know  it  or 
avail  himself  if  he  were  thrown  among  a  million  oppor- 
tunities. I  would  not  urge  the  young  man  to  money 
grub  who  is  not  compelled  to;  rather  let  him  give  of 
himself  to  society  in  some  useful  way  as  Theodore  Roose- 
velt has  done.  All  of  us  cannot  be  Roosevelts,  but  all 
of  us  can  do  our  best,  which  will  be  something  anyhow. 

To  the  young  man  who  has  not  and  must  have,  in 


OUTCROPPING  OF  IRON  173 

order  to  steam  himself  up,  the  north  is  calling ;  the  west 
is  beckoning;  the  soil  is  coaxing.  Everywhere  masters 
are  in  search  of  trustworthy,  energetic,  loyal  youth. 
Never  was  there  such  an  era  of  plenty  to  be  plucked  by 
all  who  will  bestir  themselves  out  of  the  common  ruts  of 
sloth  and  indolence.  What  a  measure  of  boys  I  have 
gotten  when  I  have  had  half  a  hundred  of  them  in  the 
wilderness  with  me,  and  have  offered  a  reward  to  all 
who  would  beat  me  to  the  bathing  place  in  the  morning. 
Out  of  fifty  not  more  than  one  or  two  would  race  with 
me  to  the  creek  or  lake  near  camp.  When  we  had  to 
break  the  ice  in  the  late  autumn  in  order  to  bathe  fre- 
quently not  one  boy  in  a  hundred  would  do  it.  For 
near  forty  years  now  I  have  lived  in  the  robust  north 
and  in  winter  I  have  taken  a  run  naked  and  rolled  in 
the  snow  every  morning  before  breakfast,  when  in  the 
woods,  say  at  four  o'clock.  In  all  that  time  I  have 
known  of  only  one  young  man  who  would  follow  my  ex- 
ample, without  being  ridiculed  into  it  or  compelled  in 
some  way. 

There  are  only  two  driving  forces:  one  is  necessity 
and  the  other  is  love,  and  the  latter  is  best.  One  may 
have  love  of  work  without  necessity,  and  the  effort  is 
noble  that  is  thus  made.  Necessity  and  love  together 
beget  twice-born  offspring. 


CHAPTER  XX 

INTO    THE    HEART    OF    THE    ARCTIC    LAPLAND    WHERE 

THE    MYSTERIES    ARE    ATTUNED    TO    THE 

MUFFLED    FOOTFALLS    OF    SILENCE 

ONE  winter  near  the  close  of  the  last  century,  I 
found  myself  alone  in  Europe  engaged  in  visit- 
ing iron  ore  fields.  I  started  in  the  United 
Kingdom  and  then  proceeded  to  Spain,  where  I  found 
the  old  Bilbao  district  of  consuming  interest.  I  did  not 
tarry  long  in  Italy  but  proceeded  into  Germany  and  on 
into  Russia,  and  over  the  Urals.  Doubling  back  I  went 
into  Finland  at  Helsingfors.  North  to  Uleaborg  I 
found  good  enough  railroad  conveniences,  with  women 
for  sleeping  car  attendants.  At  Uleaborg  I  decided  to 
travel  on  north  to  Tornea,  at  the  head  of  the  Gulf  of 
Bothnia,  and  around  the  gulf  to  Lulea  in  Sweden.  As 
usual,  not  two  persons  told  me  the  same  distance.  The 
map  route  measured  about  three  hundred  miles,  but 
there  was  no  road,  and  all  the  way  until  we  reached 
Haparanda  a  direct  course  would  be  impossible.  My 
destination  was  the  Gellivare,  Kirunavaara  and  Luosa- 
vaara  iron  districts  in  Lapland,  all  within  the  Arctic 
zone.  It  would  have  been  easier  and  quicker  to  have 
doubled  back  to  Abo,  thence  to  have  gone  across  the  Bal- 
tic through  the  beautiful  Aaland  Islands  to  Stockholm, 
and  north  through  Upsala  to  Lulea  and  Gellivare  by 
rail.  But  I  had  a  chance  to  go  among  the  Lapps  and 
traverse  an  Arctic  region  that  is  visited  almost  never 

174 


THE  HEAET  OF  THE  AKTIC  LAPLAND     ITS 

in  the  winter,  and  seldom  enough  in  the  summer.  It 
was  middle  February.  The  weather  was  below  zero  all 
the  time,  and  some  of  the  time  far  below.  There  was 
plenty  of  snow.  I  engaged  several  Lapps  and  enough 
reindeer  to  draw  me  and  them,  having  at  the  time 
no  idea  how  many  would  be  required.  To  my  com- 
plete surprise  I  learned  that  men,  women  and  children 
would  all  go  with  me.  It  was  interesting.  Rarely 
will  Lapp  families  permit  themselves  to  be  sepa- 
rated. When  they  get  down  to  brass  tacks  the  women 
are  the  rulers.  I  made  all  of  my  arrangements  with  a 
squat,  fat,  little  head  man  or  chief,  but  I  noticed  that 
he  engaged  in  frequent  consultations  with  his  wife. 
The  greater  number  of  them  are  Lutherans  and  good 
and  kindly,  but  an  exceedingly  independent  people. 
Resembling  the  Esquimo  in  physique  they  possess  a  bet- 
ter intellect,  and  temperamentally  are  more  like  the  Ka- 
chins  of  Upper  Burma  or  the  Thibetans.  I  am  just 
about  six  feet  tall.  There  was  not  a  Lapp  in  my  party 
that  could  not  walk  erect  under  my  arm  extended  hori- 
zontally. 

Men,  women  and  children  are  fat  and  greasy,  and  as 
they  seldom  bathe  they  are,  in  a  sense,  dirty.  Such 
habits  of  life  as  they  have  could  not  endure  in  a  land 
less  clean  and  wholesome.  In  all  Lapland  there  is  not 
an  unclean  thing  except  the  Lapps,  and  really  I  soon 
forgot  to  think  of  them  as  being  dirty,  even  with  the 
contrast  they  made  to  the  sweet  air  and  the  immaculate 
snow.  As  a  people  they  are  rich  and  independent. 
Their  government  is  tribal,  and  to  a  considerable  extent 
it  is  communal. 

There  had  been  a  famine  in  the  north  Baltic  and 
Bothnian  regions,  and  zealous  persons,  who  too  often 
make  it  their  profession,  had  been  collecting  money 


176  THE  IKON  HUNTER 

from  liberal  countries  for  their  relief.  None  of  this 
was  desired  by  the  Lapps  or  accepted  by  them.  There 
was  no  poverty  among  them,  and  while  their  standards 
of  living  are  not  high,  they  never  are  in  want  of  neces- 
saries. Property  is  not  held  in  common  exactly,  but 
may  be  used  in  common  in  case  of  need.  I  saw  one 
chief  Lapp  of  whom  it  was  said  that  he  owned  twenty 
thousand  reindeer.  He  was  a  Lapp  millionaire  but  did 
not  conduct  a  reindeer  trust. 

Wealth  in  Lapland  is  measured  in  reindeer.  They 
are  everything,  and  when  compared  with  gold  they  take 
on  a  warmth  of  value  that  is  appealing.  The  Lapp 
drinks  the  milk  of  the  reindeer,  eats  its  flesh,  makes 
clothing  of  its  skin;  weapons,  implements,  furniture 
and  harness  of  its  bone.  He  even  uses  its  hair  for  many 
purposes  and  the  sinews  and  viscera  are  very  valuable. 
Fancy  being  able  to  do  this  with  a  chunk  of  gold.  A 
drink  of  milk  of  gold  would  be  a  mockery,  and  if  you 
do  not  believe  it  just  take  a  swallow  of  the  delusive 
German  goldwasser  beverage.  The  yellow  metal  is  only 
a  convenience.  It  has  no  real  value  and  is  only  a  meas- 
ure of  or  representative  of  value.  It  is  a  necessity,  no 
doubt,  but  it  is  also  concentrated  selfishness,  and  givee 
people  an  incurable  disease  that  permits  a  few  to  con- 
trol the  wealth  of  the  world  to  an  extent  greater  than  is 
for  the  good  of  mankind.  Robinson  Crusoe  could  do 
nothing  with  gold,  but  he  could  have  done  famously 
with  a  reindeer. 

The  Lapps  almost  worship  them,  but  do  not  treat  them 
with  the  demonstrations  of  endearment  that  a  Bedouin 
lavishes  upon  his  she  camel,  only  because  that  is  not 
their  nature.  In  the  winter  they  feed  their  working 
reindeer  on  rock  lichens  or  reindeer  moss.  They  are 
kept  in  the  lowlands  and  valleys  in  the  winter.  Dur- 


THE  HEAET  OF  THE  ARTIC  LAPLAND     177 

ing  the  short  season  of  summer  they  are  herded  at  an 
elevation  that  insures  cool,  if  not  cold  weather  and  even 
snow,  for  they  die  off  if  subjected  to  warmth.  In  this 
respect  they  are  like  the  llama  that  will  not  thrive  in 
most  of  the  Andean  lands  below  an  altitude  of  two  or 
three  thousand  feet.  The  Lapps  themselves  fare  better 
in  the  highlands  in  summer  and  there  they  go. 

Christmas  is  their  great  feast  day.  It  is  also  their 
funeral  season.  They  bury  their  dead  once  a  year. 
Preserved  in  snow  and  ice  during  the  year,  corpses  are 
disinterred  from  their  frigid  temporary  mausoleum  at 
Christmas  and  given  a  ceremonial,  final  burial. 

A  reindeer  sledge  is  quite  exactly  like  a  Hoosier  hog 
trough.  It  is  hollowed  out  of  a  log  about  four  feet, 
sometimes  four  and  a  half  feet,  long  and  rounding,  log- 
shaped  on  the  bottom.  This  causes  the  thing  to  roll 
over  if  given  any  kind  of  a  chance.  To  acquire  the 
art  of  riding  in  one  is  a  similar  experience  to  learning 
to  ride  a  bicycle,  and  something  like  learning  to  swim. 
A  six-foot  body  crumpled  into  a  four-foot  sledge  and 
calked  with  furs  is  at  first  a  clumsy  arrangement,  but 
it  is  possible  for  it,  as  I  found,  to  become  a  part  of 
the  sledge  when  the  feat  of  balancing  comes  to  one.  It 
does  come,  for  all  of  a  sudden  your  mental  gyroscope  is 
automatic,  and  you  do  not  know  how  you  have  done  it. 

A  sledge  may  be  drawn  by  one,  two  or  three  reindeer 
with  spare  and  bare  animals  trotting  behind  or  along- 
side. There  was  never  less  than  two  hitched  to  my 
sledge.  This  was  done  by  fastening  a  reindeer  thong, 
a  Boer  would  call  it  a  riem,  to  the  bow  of  the  sledge, 
passing  it  between  the  legs  of  the  reindeer  and  tying  it 
to  a  names  at  the  breast  of  the  base  of  the  neck  and 
below.  These  hames  were  made  of  reindeer  ribs  and 
fitted  snugly.  They  never  seemed  to  gall.  The  second 


178  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

reindeer  was  attached  tandem  by  fastening  the  single 
tug  to  the  first  one,  just  behind  the  hames.  And  so  on 
the  third  would  be  tandem  also.  Headmen  at  ceremo- 
nies sometimes  have  fifty  or  even  more  reindeer  in  a 
tandem  team,  and  then  it  is  not  uncommon  for  several 
sledges  to  be  tied  together,  one  behind  the  other. 

The  food  and  its  preparation  was  very  interesting. 
The  headman  had  several  pots  of  iron  and  tin.  Pot 
hooks  of  bone  and  bone  spoons  were  common  to  all. 
Quite  a  few  of  them,  both  women  and  men,  carried 
crude,  home-made  knives;  there  were  also  skinning 
knives  of  bone.  My  headman  had  a  little,  solid  silver, 
home-made  pipe,  not  much  bigger  than  the  Japanese  use. 
He  kept  this  going  with  a  mixture  of  coffee  and  tobacco. 
Everybody  smoked,  mostly  bone  pipes,  if  they  had  the 
"  makings."  These  pipes,  and  particularly  the  silver 
ones,  would  get  very  hot,  but  the  Lapps  seemingly  were 
unmindful  of  this.  The  chief's  cooking  was  all  done  in 
pots.  Fuel  had  to  be  carried  and  was  scant. 

Some  of  the  others  cooked,  or  rather  heated  their 
meat,  by  placing  hot  stones  in  birch-bark  buckets  con- 
taining water.  No  stop  of  any  kind  was  made  without 
boiling  the  coffee  pot.  It  was  carried  by  hand,  and  as 
its  contents  were  water  and  milk  and  coffee,  it  was  han- 
dled carefully.  For  seasoning  the  coffee  the  Lapps  use 
salt  and  pepper  instead  of  sugar;  not  much  salt,  but 
plenty  of  pepper.  All  hands  drank  out  of  the  coffee 
pot,  using  it  as  a  loving  cup.  There  was  always  plenty 
of  hair  in  the  coffee.  This  kept  it  from  slopping  out 
as  it  was  carried,  and  also  compelled  one  to  strain  it 
through  his  teeth  in  order  to  drink  with  comfort.  The 
Paraguayans  have  a  better  way  in  taking  their  yerba 
mate.  They  suck  it  through  a  stem  to  which  a  little 
woven  wicker  sieve  is  attached. 


THE  HEAET  OF  THE  AETIC  LAPLAND     179 

We  also  had  raw,  frozen  fish  for  a  delicacy.  The 
raw  fish  made  me  sick  finally  and  I  gave  it  up,  since 
which  time  I  have  been  unfriendly  even  to  sardellen 
and  kindred  preparations.  I  do  not  like  to  be  finicky 
about  eating,  because  I  have  always  thought  that  it  is  a 
measure  of  mental  breadth  and  elasticity.  Notwith- 
standing, I  do  not  like  raw  fish.  Bah  ! 

For  bread  we  had  unleavened  cakes  made  from  flour 
and  the  ground  bark  of  the  dwarfed  popple  and  birch. 
I  thought  I  could  tell  the  popple  cakes  from  the  birchen 
cakes  by  their  greater  bitterness.  These  cakes  had  been 
baked  for  a  long  time ;  weeks,  months  or  years  before,  I 
do  not  know  which. 

At  night  they  would  erect  skin  tepees  if  it  was  stormy ; 
in  fact,  almost  always  we  put  them  up.  If  the  wind 
blew  hard,  snow  would  be  piled  around  the  bottom.  I 
have  only  occupied  an  igloo  a  few  times,  but  I  have  an 
idea  that  they  are  warmer  than  the  reindeer  skin  house 
used  by  the  Lapp.  Sometimes  I  tried  to  sleep  in  my 
sledge,  but  I  would  get  cramps  and  would  have  to  dig 
out  and  stretch.  During  the  day  I  often  walked  for  a 
change.  Always  while  so  doing  I  would  be  chagrined 
because  I  had  to  make  an  extra  effort  to  keep  up  with 
the  stride  of  the  reindeer,  and  the  goose  waddle  of  the 
Lapps.  There  were  seventeen  in  the  party,  including 
me.  The  Lapps  were  of  all  sizes  and  sexes.  There 
was  no  sex  false  delicacy,  but  social  morals  are  rigidly 
observed. 

The  snow-covered  wastes  were  like  almost  level  plains 
and  the  hardened  surface  made  walking  easy.  We  had 
fourteen  sledges  and  ninety-one  reindeer.  Some  of  the 
animals  were  too  young  to  work  and  some  of  them  were 
used  only  as  milk  cows.  Forage  made  up  the  most  of 
the  cargo.  Fuel  too.  We  had  no  vegetables  of  any 


180  THE  IKON  HUNTER 

kind.  The  Lapps  and  Eskimos  seem  to  be  immune  to 
scorbutical  attacks. 

We  met  with  no  un  surmount  able  obstructions.  Mak- 
ing short  cuts  across  fjords  brought  us  up  against  wind- 
rows of  ice  and  snow  sometimes  which  forced  detours, 
or  made  negotiation  more  or  less  exacting.  The  weather 
much  of  the  time  was  clear  and  cold,  and  in  morning 
and  evening  and  at  night  the  air  would  contain  fine  ice 
particles.  I  had  seen  the  same  conditions  in  the  Lake 
Superior  and  Hudson  Bay  regions.  We  were  follow- 
ing the  Arctic  Circle  at  about  66°  north,  varying.  Our 
course  was  at  first  north,  then  northwest,  then  west  and 
then  south.  In  the  middle  of  the  day  the  sun  was 
warm  and  dazzling,  and  I  had  to  protect  my  eyes  from 
snow  blindness.  The  Lapps  were  not  bothered  with 
anything. 

We  had  a  few  pairs  of  skis,  but  had  no  use  for  them 
until  we  reached  a  Lapp  town  or  winter  encampment 
between  Haukipudas  and  Pudasjarvi.  They  were  pre- 
paring for  a  big  hunt  on  skis  for  wolverines,  the  great 
enemy  of  the  young  reindeer  and  the  subject  of  intense 
dislike  by  the  Lapps.  If  I  could  have  done  so,  and  I 
could  not,  I  would  not  have  told  them  that  they  call 
the  people  Wolverines  where  I  lived.  Probably  they 
would  have  dumped  me  in  a  snow  cave  and  speared  me 
with  a  dull  bone  spear  and  left  me. 

I  wonder  why  they  call  Michigan  folk  Wolverines  ? 
They  are  not  gluttons,  and  that  animal  was  never  nu- 
merous in  the  State. 

My  party  joined  the  wolverine  hunt.  A  great  cir- 
cle was  formed  and  the  contraction  of  it  was  achieved 
in  good  order,  with  much  guttural  yelling.  A  lot  of 
wolverines  were  rounded  up,  some  of  which  escaped  the 
steel  and  also  bone  pointed  spears.  Twenty-nine  were 


THE  HEAET  OF  THE  AKTIC  LAPLAND     181 

killed.  This  was  enough  to  warrant  a  celebration  and 
feast.  Much  peppered  coffee  was  drunk  and  reindeer 
meat  consumed.  There  were  ski  races,  reindeer  races 
and  spear-throwing  contests. 

It  was  good  to  note  the  complete  absence  of  alcoholics. 
Not  even  the  headmen  had  guns  or  pistols.  I  noticed 
that  a  good  many  of  the  Lapps  from  farther  north  had 
a  dangerous-looking  weapon  made  from  a  stone  tied  with 
a  thong  like  a  sling.  The  rock  was  not  supposed  to 
leave  the  sling  when  thrown.  They  use  it  in  capturing 
ptarmigan  and  for  several  hunting  purposes. 

I  could  not  tell  very  nearly  how  far  we  traveled  each 
day.  Some  days  we  seemed  to  make  good  marches  and 
upon  others  we  would  not  go  as  far.  I  think  the  least 
distance  covered  in  a  day  was  ten  miles  and  the  great- 
est probably  thirty,  with  an  average  perhaps  of  sixteen. 
We  did  not  go  into  Haukipudas  where  I  had  expected  to 
check  up.  There  were  several  camps  en  route  but  they 
were  movable  and  temporary.  I  managed  to  recognize 
Simo  and  also  Kemi  and  I  estimated  that  we  should 
soon  arrive  in  Tornea.  In  this  I  was  mistaken,  and  the 
first  thing  I  knew  we  had  passed  it  and  arrived  in  Ha- 
paranda,  from  which  point  there  is  a  marked  road  to 
Lulea  by  way  of  Nederkalix  and  Tornea. 

Tornea  is  at  the  mouth  of  the  Tome  Elf,  which  flows 
out  of  the  arctic  lake  Torne  Trask,  and  I  had  hoped  to 
see  it.  At  Tornea  our  road,  much  of  it  so  drifted  as  to 
be  totally  unrecognizable,  intersected  a  road  between 
Lulea  and  Gellivare. 

We  had  crossed  a  number  of  rivers,  called  johi  in 
Finland  and  elf  in  Swedish.  They  are  considerable 
streams,  as  the  Bothnian  drainage  basin  extends  eight- 
tenths  of  the  way  to  the  Arctic  Ocean,  leaving  only  a 
comparatively  narrow  strip  between  the  height  of  land 


182  THE  IKON  HUNTEK 

and  the  ocean.  There  are  low  mountains  between  the 
rivers,  and  thinly  interspersed  are  fringes  of  scraggy, 
dwarfed  trees,  mostly  birches,  none  of  them  exceeding 
a  height  of  ten  or  twelve  feet.  Their  crooked,  gnarled, 
scarred  boles  suggested  gnomes  or  little,  old,  dried-up 
Japanese  men  and  the  dwarfed  trees  they  delight  in  cul- 
tivating. 

I  did  not  see  much  evidence  of  life,  but  there  was 
more  than  I  expected  to  find  inland.  There  are  Arctic 
hares,  foxes,  wolverines,  polar  bear  (not  many),  wild 
reindeer  or  caribou,  ptarmigan  and  two  large  gallinae, 
something  like  blackgame.  The  bigger  one  of  these 
edible  game  birds  weighs  ten  to  twelve  pounds.  They 
are  not  plentiful. 

The  only  hardship  I  suffered  worth  considering  was 
the  food,  and  I  think  that  I  would  not  have  minded  that 
much  if  I  had  not  been  made  sick  by  the  raw  fish.  At 
first  I  did  not  know  a  word  of  Lappish,  and  not  one  of 
my  Lapps  knew  a  word  of  English.  It  took  forty-one 
days  to  make  the  trip.  Every  day  I  learned  several 
words,  and  it  was  not  long  before  I  could  get  along  very 
well.  One  also  becomes  an  expert  pantomimist. 

I  was  glad  to  reach  Lulea.  After  an  inspection  of 
the  successful  electrical  concentration  works,  that  refine 
the  Gellivare  magnetite,  I  was  ready  to  proceed  to  the 
source  of  the  ore  at  Malmberg,  near  Gellivare.  A  rail- 
road built  to  haul  this  iron  ore  to  the  sea  offered  a  very 
good  passenger  service.  I  think  it  was  the  first  rail- 
road to  be  built  in  the  Arctic  zone  anywhere  in  the 
world. 

At  Gellivare  I  found  the  manager  of  the  mines  a  most 
engaging  and  hospitable  gentleman,  who  had  visited  the 
Michigan  iron  mines.  He  was  gracious  in  every  way 
and  made  my  visit  to  Gellivare  pleasant  and  memorable. 


THE  HEAET  OF  THE  ARTIC  LAPLAND     183 

I  studied  the  ore  and  iron  formations  there  for  a  few 
days  and  went  on  to  Kirunavaara  and  Luosavaara. 
The  railroad  was  being  continued  by  the  Swedish  gov- 
ernment to  these  great  ore  fields,  and  in  conjunction 
with  Norway  across  the  Riksgransen  to  an  Arctic  open 
seaport,  now  called  Narvik,  on  Ofoten  Fjord. 

Before  leaving  for  Kirunavaara  I  climbed  the  Dun- 
dret,  a  famous  mountain  near  Gellivare,  to  see  the  mid- 
night sun.  It  is  scarcely  worth  while  to  do  this  if  one 
is  to  remain  long  in  the  "  Land  of  the  Midnight  Sun," 
because  no  special  trip  is  necessary  to  see  it. 

I  stopped  for  a  day  at  Boden,  where  I  witnessed  the 
work  of  construction  upon  quite  a  formidable  fort  Swe- 
den was  building  to  protect  that  portion  of  the  boundary, 
and  especially  the  new  railroad,  from  the  dreaded  Rus- 
sians. Wherever  I  went  in  Northern  Sweden  I  found 
a  shadowy  fear  of  the  bear's  claws,  and  well-informed 
Swedes  seemed  to  be  certain  that  in  the  long  run  the 
new  Arctic  railroad  would  fall  into  the  hands  of  the 
Russians. 

In  the  more  populous  portions  of  Sweden  the  polit- 
ical topic  most  discussed  was  the  strained  relations  be- 
tween Norway  and  Sweden.  There  was  more  agitation 
in  Norway  over  this  than  in  Sweden.  It  was  freely 
predicted  that  Norway  would  secede  from  the  Scandi- 
navian Union  with  Sweden,  and  that  perhaps  there 
would  be  war.  Upon  my  return  to  the  United  States  I 
was  roundly  abused  by  Swedish-American  newspapers 
for  a  statement  of  my  belief  that  the  Union  would  not 
endure  much  longer.  The  only  thing  that  prevented 
actual  hostilities  when  the  break  came  was  the  courage 
and  preparedness  of  Norway,  the  Norse  reputation  for 
valor,  and  the  conviction  on  the  part  of  Sweden  that 
Norway  could  neither  be  conquered  nor  coerced. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

DEPOSITS  OF  IRON  ORE  AND  BEDS  OF  COAL  UNDEB 
THE  SHADOW  OF  THE  POLE 

CROSSING  the  Arctic  Circle  anywhere  the  route 
on  north  is  a  bleak  one  in  the  winter.  Snow 
fields,  bare,  cold,  gaunt,  rocky  ridges,  almost  no 
sign  of  vegetation  or  animal  life,  make  a  region  that 
would  repel  anything  almost  but  selfish  or  needful  men. 
Infrequently  I  saw  Lapp  winter  camps.  It  is  a  lone- 
some world.  All  visitors  to  the  far  north  notice  the 
oppressive  stillness :  "  the  muffled  footfalls  of  silence," 
as  quiet  as  a  noise  too  great  to  hear. 

The  Kirunavaara-Luosavaara  iron  ore  fields  contain 
the  most  extensive  deposits  of  magnetite  known  in  the 
world.  It  may  be  that  they  possess  a  greater  tonnage 
than  any,  even  more  than  the  Mesaba  of  Minnesota,  or 
the  Itabira,  of  Minas  Geraes,  Brazil.  They  are  located 
in  the  northwest  part  of  Swedish  Lapland,  well  within 
the  Arctic  Circle,  and  not  far  from  the  boundary  be- 
tween Norway  and  Sweden. 

The  region  had  not  been  thoroughly  explored  when  I 
visited  it  in  the  last  decade  of  eighteen  hundred,  but 
enough  was  known  to  warrant  expensive  measures  to  get 
the  ore  into  the  markets  of  the  world.  Since  the  first 
attack  upon  it  much  more  has  been  learned,  until  there 
remains  no  doubt  that  there  is  a  most  remarkable  ton- 
nage. The  ore  is  a  magnetite.  It  runs  as  high  as 

184 


UNDER  THE  SHADOW  OF  THE  POLE     185 

sixty-nine  per  cent,  in  metallic  iron.  I  was  assured  that 
cargoes  averaging  as  high  as  that  could  be  shipped. 

Some  of  it  is  low  enough  in  phosphorus  to  make  it  a 
Bessemer  ore,  which  process  is  impossible  to  ore  con- 
taining more  than  one-thousandth  of  one  per  cent,  of 
phosphorus  to  one  per  cent,  of  metallic  iron,  unless,  of 
course,  that  ore  higher  than  that  in  phosphorus  is  mixed 
with  an  ore  much  lower  in  phosphorus. 

Sulphur  in  the  Kirunavaara  ore  varies.  The  per- 
centage is  always  rather  high,  but  not  enough  to  be  pro- 
hibitive of  treatment.  The  most  objectionable  ingredi- 
ent of  the  ore  is  titanium,  which  is  present  to  as  great 
a  degree  as  one  per  cent. 

It  was  generally  considered  among  metallurgists  that 
so  much  titanium  as  that  rendered  ore  unfit  for  use  and 
valueless.  They  had  as  yet  discovered  no  way  to  flux 
titaniferous  ore.  It  would  become  sticky  and  mushy 
and  would  not  flow  freely. 

Inability  to  handle  such  ore,  because  of  lack  of  knowl- 
edge, caused  a  condemnatory  report  to  be  made  upon 
the  titaniferous  iron  ore  range  north  of  Port  Arthur  in 
Canada,  that  has  kept  that  region  undeveloped  to  this 
day.  It  nearly  operated  in  the  same  way  with  the 
Kirunavaara  field. 

Now  methods  are  employed  that  do  away  with  the 
objections  to  the  presence  of  titanium  up  to  one  per 
cent.,  or  even  in  greater  quantities. 

At  the  time  of  my  visit  the  Kirunavaara  range  had 
been  traced  for  sixty  miles.  Where  the  railroad  touched 
the  range  and  the  first  mining  was  begun,  practically 
an  uninterrupted  outcrop  of  iron  ore  extended  for  more 
than  five  miles.  Some  places  it  was  seven  hundred  feet 
above  the  surface.  At  one  point  it  dipped  under  a  small 
lake  and  had  been  cut  with  a  diamond  drill  operated 


186  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

upon  the  ice.  Even  with  the  lower  wages  prevailing,  the 
cost  of  getting  out  the  ore  was  greater  than  upon  any 
of  the  American  ranges.  Coal  was  a  problem  and  I 
was  told  that  a  cargo  of  iron  ore  had  been  sent  to  Can- 
ada in  exchange  for  a  return  cargo  of  coal.  Since  that 
time,  John  M.  Longyear,  of  Michigan,  has  opened  coal 
measures  upon  Spitzbergen,  and  the  fuel  question  has 
been  solved  in  a  measure. 

From  Kirunavaara  to  the  ocean  at  Narvik  the  rail- 
road is  a  series  of  snow  sheds  and  tunnels,  requiring 
superior  courage  and  engineering  in  construction.  Nar- 
vik was  just  being  built.  The  ore  docks,  pockets  and 
trestles  were  of  steel  and  plans  for  an  important  port 
had  been  made. 

Since  then,  I  am  informed,  that  as  much  as  fifteen 
million  tons  have  been  shipped  from  Narvik  in  a  year, 
more  than  half  of  it  going  to  Essen,  Germany,  where  the 
great  Krupp  iron  works  are  located. 

At  Narvik  I  visited  the  cod  fisheries  among  the  Ofo- 
ten  or  Lofoden  Islands  and  formed  a  new  aversion  to 
that  efficacious  remedy  codliver  oil.  Also  I  saw  the 
famous  maelstrom,  caused,  as  is  well  known,  by  the  tidal 
waters  choking  between  rocky  islands.  A  portion  of 
the  wild  ocean  is  forced  through  with  roars  and  hisses 
and  churning  and  foam.  Sometimes  the  maelstrom  re- 
minds one  of  the  great  tidal  bores  that  are  to  be  seen 
in  some  of  the  rivers  on  the  China  coast.  The  twisting, 
charging,  convulsive  waters  eddy  and  swirl,  and  require 
little  imagination  to  look  wicked  and  justify  the  demon 
stories  told  in  Norse  by  Skald  and  Saga,  from  primitive 
times  down  to  the  present.  They  could  easily  have 
wrecked  the  Viking  ships,  which  were  not  ships  at  all 
but  only  big,  clumsy,  mostly  open  boats,  very  similar  to 


UNDER  THE  SHADOW  OF  THE  POLE     187 

the  little  traders  and  fisher  craft  that  dodge  in  and  out 
along  the  rocky,  saw-edged  coast  to-day. 

I  found  good  coastwise  steamers  and  had  a  comforta- 
ble and  pleasurable  trip  to  Tronisoe  and  Hammerfest. 
It  was  not  so  easy  to  get  to  North  Cape  and  over  to 
Spitzbergen,  about  four  hundred  and  fifty  miles  from 
the  mainland. 

West  Spitzbergen  area  about  fifteen  thousand  square 
miles ;  North  East  Land,  about  four  thousand,  and  Edge 
Island,  about  two  thousand  five  hundred  square  miles, 
form  the  No  Man's  Land  group,  known  as  Spitzbergen. 
They  are  between  seventy-six  and  eighty-one  north  lati- 
tudes. West  Spitzbergen  is  nothing  more  than  a  rock- 
girt  ice  house.  A  central  plateau  of  ice  forces  glaciers 
down  to  the  sea  through  giant  rifts.  All  around  the 
coastal  belt  one  may  hear  roaring,  splashing,  rumbling, 
cracking,  as  the  huge  ends  of  ice  rivers  break  off  into  the 
sea,  fractured  by  their  own  ponderousness,  and  float 
off  as  icebergs.  Tourists  generally  visit  the  west  coast 
where  a  hotel  has  been  built  in  connection  with  a  weekly, 
in  summer,  steamer  service. 

The  Dutch  are  credited  with  the  discovery  of  Spitz- 
bergen in  1596,  but  no  nation  claims  it.  If  anything 
it  is  American,  because  an  American  company,  led  by 
John  M.  Longyear,  of  Michigan,  is  mining  and  ship- 
ping coal  from  there.  They  have  a  shaft  down  through 
frozen  material  more  than  one  thousand  two  hundred 
feet,  the  deepest  ice  shaft  in  the  world.  It  is  reported 
that  these  mines  have  recently  been  sold  to  Russia  for 
thirty  million  dollars. 

Many  interesting  fossils  have  been  exhumed,  mostly 
of  a  tropical  nature,  proving  the  polar  regions  once  to 
have  been  warm  before  the  tilting  ice  cap  and  precession 


188  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

of  the  equinoxes  caused  an  axial  shift.  Huge  palm 
fronds  have  been  dug  out  and  vast  quantities  of  im- 
bedded fossil  coprolites  have  been  encountered.  In 
summer  the  sun  glare  and  reflected  heat  on  the  interior 
ice  fields  is  trying.  Over  one  hundred  species  of  au- 
tochthonous flowering  plants  and  ferns  have  been  classi- 
fied. 

Rabot  and  Sir  Martin  Con  way  have  done  some  ex- 
ploration, but  really  little  is  known  about  Spitzbergen. 

By  the  time  of  my  return  down  the  Norse  coast  the 
headlands,  black-bordered  shore  and  shadowy  fjords 
were  compelling,  and  kept  one's  senses  alert  and  emo- 
tions stirred.  I  could  easily  see  how  the  hardy  folk 
were  content  to  remain  the  thralls  of  such  environment. 
Every  color  that  sky  and  sea  could  assume  was  present; 
the  fjords  were  Rembrandtian  bins  of  gloom  with  all 
arrangements  of  chiaroscuro  from  arrows  of  sunlight 
to  pitchy  dungeon  depths  of  darkness. 

Over  the  cliffs  poured  silvery  streamlets  fed  by  melt- 
ing snow,  making  a  black  and  white  barred  coast  line 
and  even  suggesting  troops  of  white  horse  cavalry  con- 
cealed over  the  top  of  the  escarpment,  with  only  their 
straggling  white  tails  hanging  in  view  over  and  down. 

The  deep  green  of  spear-topped  tannenbaum  amidst 
snow  formed  a  fairy  background.  Altogether  the  scen- 
ery in  April  and  May  along  the  north  coast  of  Norway 
is  indescribably  fascinating  and  beautiful. 

Flocks  of  water  fowl  took  wing,  fishes  broke  through 
the  water  to  the  surface,  the  clumsy  eider  duck  quacked 
to  its  nesting  mate,  and  spring  in  gnomeland  was  in  the 
nostrils. 

On  the  way  down  the  coast  I  found  Throndjem  and 
its  ancient  cathedral  and  hall  of  the  Vikings  worth  some 
hours. 


UNDEK  THE  SHADOW  OF  THE  POLE     189 

I  worked  my  way  inland  to  the  famous  older  iron 
fields  of  Sweden,  and  finally  arrived  at  Stockholm  after 
a  fine  canal  trip. 

One  must  be  charmed  with  Stockholm  with  its  sing- 
ing Malar  and  its  intrusive  water  roads,  so  much 
sweeter  than  those  of  Venice,  if  not  quite  so  romantic 
and  colorful. 

In  these  days  the  Swedes  give  one  the  superficial  im- 
pression of  being  sensualists,  living  only  to  eat  and 
drink  and  unrein  their  passions.  There  was  a  deeper 
side  than  that  in  evidence  at  the  smorgos  board  and  the 
puntsch  table,  that  told  of  more  serious  things  and  higher 
ideals. 

The  culture  that  starts  at  Upsala  may  be  traced  in  its 
admirable  diffusion  if  one  takes  the  trouble  to  do  so. 

The  Swedes  are  democratic,  but  not  so  much  so  as  the 
Norwegians,  who  have  no  superiors  as  a  worthy  and 
fine  people. 


CHAPTEK  XXII 

A   STARVATION    HIKE    TO   HUNT    FOB   A   HIDDEN   RANGE 
OF    IRON    ORE 

IN"  the  course  of  my  years  of  summer  explorations  in 
Canada  I  heard  repeatedly  of  an  iron  dam  on  the 
Vermillion  River,  north  of  Georgian  Bay.  Grad- 
ually I  worked  in  that  direction.  A  Mr.  MacCharles, 
who  had  been  employed  by  me  temporarily  to  do  some 
work  for  my  newspaper  at  the  Sault,  had  gone  to  Sud- 
bury  in  1889.  The  nickel  deposits  had  been  attracting 
attention  to  the  Sudbury  district.  Rumors  of  gold  had 
sent  prospectors  as  far  afield  as  they  could  get  into  the 
wilderness  and  feed  themselves. 

Gold  will  cause  more  excitement  and  turn  more  people 
crazy  than  anything  else  in  the  world,  not  even  except- 
ing diamonds.  This  has  been  true  of  man  since  Jason 
and  his  argonauts  went  in  search  of  the  golden  fleece. 
There  is  always  a  pot  of  gold  for  somebody  at  the  foot 
of  a  rainbow,  and  the  rainbow  chasing  for  gold  has 
caused  war  and  woe,  sickness  and  sorrow,  heartache  and 
horror,  hardness  and  hunger  among  men,  from  the  be- 
ginning to  this  day  of  engulfing  strife  in  Europe. 

There  is  gold  in  the  Vermillion  River  valley  of  Can- 
ada. It  is  strewn  in  fine  particles  through  the  sand 
everywhere,  but  nowhere  has  it  paid  for  its  winning 
and  perhaps  never  will.  Searchers  for  the  mysterious 
"  mother  lode  "  that  is  supposed  to  be  the  source  of  all 

190 


A  STARVATION  HIKE  191 

placer  gold,  have  not  been  successful  in  the  Vermillion 
country. 

MacCharles  wore  a  tarn  o'shanter  on  his  head,  whis- 
kers on  his  chin,  a  Scotch  haggis  dialect  in  his  throat 
and  had  brains.  From  time  to  time  he  kept  me  in- 
formed as  to  the  gold  and  nickel  activities  around  Sud- 
bury.  I  as  repeatedly  told  him  that  I  was  not  inter- 
ested in  gold  and  nickel,  but  would  sit  up  and  take  notice 
if  he  had  any  iron  ore  clews.  The  fact  that  I  could  be 
interested  in  iron  ore  and  not  in  gold,  nickel  or  copper 
was  too  peculiar  for  his  thought  processes  to  follow. 
Nevertheless  he  was  persistently  in  touch  with  me  and 
one  day  told  me  about  an  iron  dam  on  the  Vermillion 
River  up  behind  Sudbury,  well  towards  the  Height  of 
Land.  I  had  heard  of  something  of  the  kind  before  but 
had  gotten  no  details ;  in  fact,  had  not  previously  arrived 
at  a  point  where  I  was  prepared  to  look  into  the  thing. 
Now  I  was  ready. 

I  went  to  Sudbury.  It  was  October.  The  Vermil- 
lion was  too  low  to  permit  of  ascending  it  in  canoes. 
I  got  a  couple  of  men  who  told  me  they  had  gold  claims 
near  a  certain  falls  on  the  river,  where  I  had  been  told 
were  the  exposures  of  lean  iron  ore.  They  did  not  know 
iron  ore  when  they  saw  it,  but  said  that  the  rock  at  the 
falls  in  question  was  black  and  heavy,  and  where  worn 
by  ice  and  water  showed  a  polish  like  steel.  These  men 
had  never  gone  up  river  except  when  the  stage  of  water 
permitted  canoeing.  However,  they  claimed  to  be 
woodsmen,  and  I  was  told  they  were  reliable.  Just  at 
this  juncture  I  made  the  only  mistake  of  the  kind  that 
I  have  ever  made. 

An  arrangement  was  entered  into  by  which  they  were 
to  pack  for  me  and  show  me  the  falls  of  the  iron  dam. 
I  directed  them  to  outfit  for  a  trip  of  a  month,  which 


192  THE  IKON  HUNTER 

they  said  they  could  and  would  do,  and  I  trusted  them 
and  did  not  check  over  the  supplies.  This  was  an  in- 
excusable omission  that  had  a  justifiable,  if  uncomfort- 
able sequel. 

In  the  office  of  the  Balmoral  Hotel  at  Sudbury  there 
hung  a  rough  and  ready  Canadian  Pacific  Railway  ad- 
vertising map.  I  glanced  at  it  rather  carelessly,  but 
noted  with  some  particularity  the  general  course  of  the 
Vermillion  River.  It  was  not  a  very  purposive  map, 
but  it  was  the  only  one  I  had  seen.  In  fact,  the  region 
north  of  Sudbury  had  only  been  surveyed  for  a  few 
miles,  and  that  work  had  been  done  since  the  nickel  ex- 
citement. 

We  started  north,  three  of  us.  A  short  cut  took  us  in 
a  day  to  the  Vermillion  at  Indian  Dump.  Crossing 
here  we  plunged  into  the  trackless  wilderness,  and  within 
three  days  more  were  beyond  all  signs  of  human  life. 
I  had  figured  that  with  any  kind  of  luck  at  all  we  ought 
to  have  arrived  at  the  iron  falls  in  five  days. 

On  the  eighth  day  out  I  became  convinced,  from  sev- 
eral apparent  signs,  that  my  men  were  lost  so  far  as  get- 
ting to  our  objective  was  concerned.  When  I  put  the 
matter  to  them  flatly  they  admitted  it. 

They  discovered  to  me  the  more  embarrassing  situa- 
tion that  our  grub  was  running  short.  Then  for  the 
first  time  to  my  chagrin  I  realized  my  carelessness. 
These  men  had  been  accustomed  to  traveling  with  ca- 
noes ;  they  were  not  old  packers  and  woodsmen  as  I  had 
been  told,  and  were  really  tenderfeet  away  from  a  river 
that  would  float  a  canoe.  Instead  of  taking  flour  and 
pork  and  tea,  they  had  loaded  up  with  a  lot  of  impossi- 
ble canned  stuff,  and  even  had  some  loaves  of  bread  and 
crackers. 

It  was  necessary  at  once  to  go  on  short  rations,  and 


A  STARVATION  HIKE  193 

might  have  been  the  part  of  wisdom  to  have  turned  back. 
I  had  never  done  such  a  thing  as  turn  back,  and  it  did 
not  even  occur  to  me.  The  men  said  they  could  locate 
themselves  if  they  could  get  to  the  Vermillion.  That 
seemed  easy.  We  were  west  of  that  river.  I  took  a 
course  a  little  north  of  east  and  held  to  it,  except  where 
detours  were  forced  by  lakes,  miry  swamps  and  now 
and  then  a  talus-footed  range  of  low,  rocky  mountains. 

On  the  third  clay  after  I  became  the  guide  we  arrived 
at  a  stream  that  they  said  was  the  Vermillion.  Further- 
more they  agreed  that  we  were  below  the  iron  dam, 
which  they  thought  we  could  reach  in  one  day's  march 
upstream.  We  checked  over  our  grub  carefully  and 
found  it  distressingly  low.  I  was  carrying  the  cover- 
ing for  all  of  us,  three  blankets  and  a  light  shed  tent 
done  up  in  a  pack  sheet,  with  a  tump  line  or  misery 
strap,  which  will  cut  your  hair  better  than  the  average 
barber  if  you  wear  it  outside  your  hat. 

Without  delay  we  proceeded  upstream  and,  to  my  en- 
thusiastic delight,  we  came  within  a  few  hours  to  a  falls 
and  series  of  rapids  that  proved  to  be  the  ones  I  sought. 
At  a  point  quite  a  distance  before  reaching  the  falls,  I 
came  upon  iron-bearing  rock  of  fine  texture  resembling 
an  olivine  gabbro,  and  nearby  I  saw  outcroppings  of 
lean,  magnetic  ore. 

We  camped  at  the  iron  dam  that  night.  As  soon  as 
day  broke  next  morning  I  began  clambering  over  the 
rocks.  With  my  little  hand  pick  I  freshly  fractured 
hundreds  of  projections.  All  of  the  exposures  on  both 
sides  of  the  river  were  of  lean  magnetite,  carrying  about 
thirty  per  cent,  of  metallic  iron. 

At  one  place  I  found  a  large  boulder  of  rich  iron  ore 
in  the  dry  river  bed.  Samples  from  it  analyzed  later 
gave  seventy  per  cent,  metallic  iron. 


194  THE  IKON  HUNTER 

I  climbed  the  hills  near  by,  traversed  the  ravines  and 
dug  under  every  fallen  tree  and  upturned  stump  I  saw. 
At  one  stump  I  dug  out  a  small,  rough-edged  chunk  of 
magnetic  iron  ore,  showing  by  its  unworn  edges  that  the 
solid  ledge  was  most  likely  near  at  hand. 

Grub  was  nearly  gone,  but  I  slept  two  nights  at  the 
iron  dam.  If  one  had  been  nervous  I  think  he  must 
have  been  lulled  to  sleep  by  the  music  of  the  falling 
waters,  as  they  broke  over  the  magnetic  dyke  abruptly, 
or  sang  from  cascades  or  parted  bubblingly  around  dor- 
nicks  into  vitreous  pools. 

I  needed  no  lullaby,  and  even  did  not  awaken  when  a 
moose  walked  over  my  protruding  limbs  in  front  of  our 
little  shed  tent.  The  nights  were  frosty,  and  some  snow 
fell  from  time  to  time. 

There  was  enough  snow  the  second  morning  to  exhibit 
the  tracks  of  a  big  bull  moose  that  actually  strode  over 
us  during  the  night.  Nearby  the  majestic  animal 
horned  several  twining  maples  and  must  have  cracked 
brush  and  made  a  lot  of  noise,  but  I  slept  on  uncon- 
scious of  it  all. 

I  had  not  learned  very  much  more  than  that  an  at- 
tractive and  hopeful  iron  formation  existed  here  and 
then  the  low  grub  supply  forced  me  to  fly.  All  the 
packs  were  lighter.  The  grub  was  nearly  gone  so  that 
the  men  could  take  a  portion  of  my  load.  I  took  the 
lead.  We  struck  out  on  a  bee  line  for  the  C.  P.  E. 
Railroad  track. 

Anxious  about  food  and  feeling  the  full  force  of  cha- 
grin on  account  of  my  own  carelessness,  I  tried  to  go 
as  rapidly  as  possible.  Our  short  rations  had  begun  to 
tell  on  us,  and  I  think  we  were  all  nervous,  which  made 
it  worse.  We  had  no  firearm  or  fishing  tackle. 

That  night  we  ate  the  last  of  our  supplies.     A  greasy 


A  STARVATION  HIKE  195 

soup  and  thin  really  seemed  to  do  us  more  harm  than 
good. 

Next  morning  I  rigged  a  noose  of  fine  string  on  a  pole 
about  twelve  feet  long  and  gave  it  to  Dunk,  the  younger 
man,  to  carry.  He  was  instructed  to  slyly  pass  the  loop 
over  the  head  of  a  spruce  hen,  if  we  saw  any  of  those 
beautiful  and  toothsome  Canadian  grouse.  Unlike  the 
ruffed  grouse,  they  have  dark  plumage  and  dark  meat 
and  are  stupidly  unafraid  of  man,  especially  where  they 
have  net  been  hunted. 

About  ten  o'clock  all  of  us  saw  one  at  about  the  same 
time.  Chuck  and  I  performed  in  front  of  it  so  as  to 
engage  its  attention.  It  was  perched  on  the  limb  of  a 
banksian  pine  about  nine  feet  from  the  ground,  and  sat 
near  the  bole.  Dunk  got  the  tree  trunk  between  himself 
and  the  bird.  Projecting  the  noose  end  of  his  pole 
very,  very  slowly  and  carefully  up  he  passed  the  loop 
over  the  bird's  head,  gave  a  yank  and  we  had  our  break- 
fast. One  was  not  enough  to  satisfy  us  but  it  helped 
out  wonderfully.  There  were  more  but  all  of  them 
perched  too  high.  During  the  day  Dunk  gaffled  two 
more  so  that  it  looked  as  though  we  would  not  starve. 

Next  day  we  saw  a  lot  of  spruce  hens.  Nearly  al- 
ways they  were  on  the  ground,  and  when  they  flushed 
would  fly  up  too  high  to  reach  with  our  snaffle  pole. 
The  only  way  to  get  them  was  to  throw  a  missile. 

Chuck  killed  three  in  three  throws  with  a  club  and 
then  he  started  to  boast.  He  said  that  when  he  was  a 
boy  he  could  beat  any  Indian  throwing  a  tomahawk. 
Just  about  as  he  had  satisfied  his  own  ears  with  self- 
sung  song  of  prowess,  we  came  upon  several  spruce  hens. 

Before  when  Chuck  had  thrown  so  successfully  he 
had  muttered  after  each  victory,  "  God  loves  his  own." 
It  was  not  so  much  reverence  as  it  might  have  been,  for 


196  THE  IKON  HTJNTEE 

now  he  gave  such  an  exhibition  of  bad  throwing  and 
profanity  as  would  make  one's  hair  curl.  The  tantaliz- 
ing grouse  just  ran  and  dodged.  He  never  did  make  it 
fly.  Sometimes  Chuck  would  get  up  to  within  four  or 
five  feet  of  it  and  then  he  would  throw  over  its  head. 
Finally  I  killed  it  with  my  hand  pick  as  it  ran  by  me 
within  a  couple  of  feet.  This  gave  us  four  and  we  lived 
on  them  that  day. 

The  third  day  after  our  grub  was  gone  we  saw  noth- 
ing to  eat  and  ate  nothing.  By  evening  we  were  a  lit- 
tle weak,  but  I  think  if  we  had  not  been  nervous  the  ex- 
perience would  not  have  been  disagreeable.  I  had  been 
caught  out  once  before  without  food,  but  in  an  excusa- 
ble way.  However,  I  remembered  that  I  was  so  shaky 
•that  I  missed  a  perfectly  easy  shot  at  a  deer  just  because 
I  wanted  it  so  badly.  Chuck  and  Dunk  were  becom- 
ing disagreeable ;  not  so  much  to  me  as  to  each  other. 

Just  after  dark  I  was  certain  that  I  heard  the  sound 
of  an  ax.  The  men  could  not  hear  it.  I  lined  it  up 
carefully  with  my  compass.  Next  morning  I  started  in 
the  direction  of  the  sound  of  the  ax  I  had  heard  the  eve- 
ning before.  At  first  Chuck  and  Dunk  would  not  fol- 
low me,  but  as  I  strode  on  without  stopping  a  moment 
to  coax  or  parley,  they  came  along,  now  angry  at  my 
seeming  indifference.  A  little  after  eight  o'clock  we 
came  to  an  old  lumber  camp  and  found  two  men  in  it. 
At  first  they  objected  to  dividing  their  supplies  with  us. 
I  told  them  our  story  and  wound  up  by  the  calm  but 
determined  statement  that  we  were  hungry  and  des- 
perate and  three  to  two,  and  would  have  food  if  we  had 
to  fight  for  it.  This,  with  the  promise  I  made  to  re- 
place the  grub  we  ate  and  took,  made  them  assume  a 
different  attitude.  We  ate  our  fill  and  rested  a  day. 

The  camp  was  one  of  the  best  I  ever  saw.     It  had  been 


A  STARVATION  HIKE  197 

used  very  little  and  why  it  was  abandoned  I  did  not 
know,  because  there  was  fine  standing  white  pine  in  the 
vicinity  and  very  little  evidence  of  cutting.  The  cruis- 
ers told  us  that  their  principals  expected  this  pine  to  be 
placed  upon  the  market  at  public  auction  soon,  and  they 
were  to  be  prepared  to  bid  on  it  intelligently. 

There  was  not  a  nail  or  piece  of  iron  in  the  entire 
camp.  Even  the  hinges  were  birchen.  Peeled  pine 
logs,  clean  and  beautiful,  made. the  walls.  A  scoop-roof 
made  by  adzing  logs  until  they  are  hollow  and  then 
laying  them  like  tile,  thus,  ^^^A^/^  ,  makes  a  better 
covering  than  the  clapboard  roof  of  the  South  or  the 
cedar  shake  roof  of  the  North. 

In  the  center  of  the  camp  was  an  oblong  mound  of 
earth  ten  by  sixteen  feet  in  size.  The  dirt  was  held  in 
place  by  side  logs  staked.  Overhead  a  hole  in  the  roof, 
fitted  with  a  hanging,  inside,  shake  chimney,  carried  off 
the  smoke.  This  arrangement  is  called  a  "  camboose," 
but  why  not  a  fourneau,  by  the  Canadian  French,  I  do 
not  know.  In  some  parts  it  is  called  a  "  caboose,"  but 
in  this  part  of  Canada  it  is  a  "  camboose,"  and  a  camp 
fitted  with  one  is  known  as  a  "  camboose  camp,"  and  is 
popular  because  of  ventilation  and  consequent  health- 
fulness. 

Ordinary  lumber  camps  are  not  much  better  than 
black  holes  of  Calcutta,  and  the  Canadian  lumberjack 
was  hard  to  wean  away  from  the  camboose.  The  cook 
prepared  his  meals  by  it  as  before  an  open  fire,  and 
baked  the  sweetest  and  best  bread  in  baking  kettles  that 
he  buried  in  the  hot  coals  and  ashes.  I  can  taste  it  as 
I  write.  At  night  the  men  would  sleep  in  a  circle  on 
the  hewn  log  floor,  with  their  feet  towards  the  warm 
camboose  and  their  heads  away,  and  their  torrents  of 
stinking  breath  passing  up  the  hanging  wooden  chim- 


198  THE  IKON  HUNTEK 

ney.  With  such  a  place  to  sleep  and  plenty  of  beans 
cooked  in  the  ashes,  and  fat  pork  and  thick  black  strap 
molasses,  the  Canadian  lumberjack  of  yesterday  was  a 
master  workman  in  the  woods. 

As  soon  as  I  got  to  Sudbury  I  engaged  two  reliable 
packers  and  sent  with  them  back  to  the  camp  probably 
ten  times  as  much  grub  as  the  cruisers  had  supplied  me, 
for  grub  and  life  are  the  same  in  the  big  woods.  Chuck 
went  with  them. 

It  was  a  kind  of  fool  experience,  the  whole  thing,  but 
it  did  serve  to  establish  for  me  a  credit  in  the  woods  of 
that  country  that  stood  me  in  good  service  several  times 
in  the  future. 

It  was  too  late  to  do  anything  more  that  fall,  so  my 
wife  and  I  went  off  to  the  South  Seas,  Samoa,  Tahiti, 
Fiji,  New  Zealand,  Tasmania,  Australia  and  up  through 
Torres  Straits  to  New  Guinea  and  on  to  the  Dutch  Is- 
lands, the  Philippines,  China  and  Japan.  This  took 
us  until  late  in  the  following  summer. 

Home  again  I  organized  a  party  and  inaugu- 
rated a  thorough  surface  search  and  survey  of  the  re- 
gion north  of  the  Sudbury  nickel  zone,  from  Wahna- 
pitae  Lake  on  the  east  to,  and  even  beyond,  the  Ahnap- 
ing  chain  of  lakes  on  the  west  and  well  over  the  height 
of  land  to  the  north.  This  work  and  the  activities  flow- 
ing from  it  consumed  several  seasons. 

As  soon  as  I  had  made  enough  headway  to  be  certain 
that  it  was  warranted,  I  decided  to  have  a  careful  mag- 
netic survey  made  of  the  region.  In  order  to  have  this 
done  to  the  very  best  advantage,  I  went  to  Dr.  Charles 
R.  Van  Hise,  then  at  the  head  of  the  Department  of 
Geology  of  the  University  of  Wisconsin,  and  until  his 
recent  untimely  death  president  of  that  great  institu- 
tion .of  catholic  learning. 


A  STARVATION  HIKE  199 

So  far  as  I  knew  then  and  believe  now,  Dr.  Van  Hise 
was  in  a  class  by  himself  as  an  economic  geologist.  In 
fact,  he  had  done  much  to  help  to  create  that  branch  of 
geology  in  America.  He  advised  me  to  engage  Ken- 
neth Leith,  one  of  his  assistants  and  now  Dr.  VanHise's 
successor  in  the  department  of  geology  at  Wisconsin. 

Leith  at  once  organized  his  crews,  and  I  think  while 
employed  by  me  he  did  the  first  dial  compass  surveying 
and  mapping  ever  carried  on  in  Canada.  Not  much,  if 
any,  had  been  done  in  America.  So  thorough  was  he 
and  so  competent  were  his  young  college  assistants,  that 
the  magnetic  iron  ore  formation  was  mapped  in  a  com- 
plete, highly  satisfactory  and  practical  manner.  Dr. 
VanHise  was  the  consultant  in  this  work.  It  did  not 
extend  the  boundaries  of  the  possible  ore  zone  much 
differently  from  my  own  first  rough  work,  so  far  as 
staking  claims  went,  but  it  proved  up  and  made  every- 
thing more  certain. 

During  a  considerable  period  my  time  was  entirely 
taken  up  in  securing  title  to  the  ore  lands  and  in  financ- 
ing the  enterprise.  The  most  embarrassing  condition 
was  caused  by  the  fact  that  a  portion  of  the  region  adja- 
cent to  the  Vermillion  River  had  been  run  over  by  gold 
prospectors  who  had  staked  a  lot  of  claims,  some  over- 
lapping others  and  making  for  a  confusion  that  de- 
manded care  in  unraveling. 

All  of  these  were  revived,  so  far  as  possible,  with  the 
idea  that  the  claimants  would  get  something  out  of  them, 
and  especially  as  against  a  Yankee  contestant. 

My  policy  rather  took  the  wind  out  of  their  sails. 
I  could  find  only  a  few  who  had  performed  the  require- 
ments of  law  and  had  acquired  a  title.  But  whenever 
anybody  claimed  anything  and  was  not  disputed  by 
other  prospectors,  I  would  purchase  his  alleged  right. 


200  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

If  I  found  a  claimholder  who  really  had  any  rights 
my  practice  was  such  as  to  cause  him  to  doubt  my  san- 
ity. Having  given  the  claims  up  long  before  because  of 
insufficient  gold  values,  the  prospector  would  be  con- 
scious of  no  value  so  far  as  his  knowledge  was  concerned. 
Consequently,  he  would  be  very  apt  to  feel  that  if  he 
could  get  one  hundred,  five  hundred  or  one  thousand 
dollars  for  nothing  he  would  be  just  that  much  to  the 
good.  Imagine  then  his  surprise  when  I  would  settle 
with  him  for  from  double  to  twenty  times  what  he  asked. 

My  reasons  for  doing  this  were  twofold:  conscience 
and  policy.  I  was  willing  to  pay  for  values  that  I 
knew  of,  that  the  other  party  was  ignorant  of,  because  I 
thought  it  was  right,  and  also  because  I  expected  that 
whoever  developed  the  properties  would  have  their  way 
made  easier  and  clearer,  than  if  the  local  woodspeople 
were  squeezed  to  the  lowest  cent  that  would  be  likely  to 
cause  them  to  think  they  had  been  robbed. 

But  I  nearly  ruined  my  reputation  for  sound  judg- 
ment. It  was  necessary  to  have  a  good  many  of  the 
lands  cleared  of  all  possible  lispendens  at  Toronto.  My 
legal  work  was  well  done  by  Hearst  &  McKay  and  by 
Hearst,  McKay  &  Darling,  of  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  On- 
tario. Mr.  Hearst  became  premier  of  Ontario,  and  Mr. 
McKay  became  an  able  and  respected  Canadian  judge. 
It  was  apparently  the  policy  of  every  Canadian  law 
firm  to  have  one  member  a  conservative  and  the  other  a 
liberal. 

I  had  heard  that  nothing  could  be  obtained  at  the 
governmental  departments  at  Toronto  without  paying 
for  it ;  that  from  top  to  bottom  there  had  to  be  bribery. 
I  saw  nothing  of  the  kind  during  years  of  experience 
and  I  do  not  believe  a  word  of  it.  The  fees  of  Hearst 
&  McKay  were  reasonable,  and  they  told  me  that  they 


A  STARVATION  HIKE  201 

never  thought  of  paying  any  "  grease  "  money  or  per- 
mitting graft.  In  legislative  circles  there  was  and  is  the 
same  turpitude  that  discolored  some  American  public 
characters  and  acts,  and  especially  was  this  true  there 
and  here  in  matters  involving  land  grants  and  the  pub- 
lic domain.  My  business  relations  in  Canada,  cover- 
ing a  long  period  and  comprehending  considerable  trans- 
actions, were  always  agreeable. 

Where  I  slept  in  the  little  open  shed  tent,  and  was 
unawakened  by  the  moose  that  nearly  stepped  on  me, 
there  is  now  a  flourishing  mining  town  reached  by  a 
branch  of  a  transcontinental  railroad.  They  did  not 
develop  there  without  much  hard  and  enjoyable  work. 


CHAPTEK  XXIII 

FATHEBLY   ATTITUDE    OF    JOHN    W.    GATES    AND 
JOHN    J.    MITCHELL 

AT  one  time  I  owned  the  entire  Moose  Mountain 
iron  range  with  all  of  its  immense  values.  Of 
course  I  could  do  nothing  with  it  without  finan- 
cial help.  I  did  not  have  much  trouble  arranging  for 
this. 

One  of  the  first  men  I  went  to  see  was  the  late  John 
W.  Gates.  My  idea  was  to  go  to  men  who  had  made 
their  wealth  in  iron,  who  knew  the  business  and  would 
understand  all  the  risks  involved.  Mr.  Gates  knew 
enough  about  me  readily  to  grant  me  an  interview.  I 
told  him  that  I  had  discovered  a  new  iron  range  in  the 
wilds  of  Canada.  We  talked  a  while  in  the  forenoon 
and  he  asked  me  to  return  in  the  afternoon.  When  I 
went  back  he  told  me  that  he  had  decided  to  become  in- 
terested. 

I  learned  years  afterwards  that  during  the  luncheon 
hour  he  had  wired  to  the  late  Joseph  Sellwood,  of  Du- 
luth,  asking  if  I  knew  what  I  was  talking  about  when  I 
talked  iron  ore.  Mr.  Sellwood  was  one  of  the  most  suc- 
cessful of  the  early  practical  school  of  Lake  Superior 
iron  men.  His  reply  to  Mr.  Gates,  with  whom  he  had 
been  associated  for  a  long  time,  was:  "  You  can  go 
sled  length  on  Osborn." 

I  did  not  realize  then  that  I  was  so  favorably  regarded 
by  those  whose  political  trails  I  had  not  seriously 

202 


GATES  AND  MITCHELL  203 

crossed.  I  had  heard  a  great  deal  about  John  W.  Gates, 
and  all  of  it  was  not  favorable.  My  opinion  is  that  he 
was  much  maligned,  as  men  in  big  business  were  wont 
to  be  during  a  certain  period  of  industrial,  and  conse- 
quent political  unrest.  All  of  rny  memories  of  Mr. 
Gates  possess  a  kindly  tone.  The  picture  I  like  best  to 
recall  is  that  of  one  I  saw  on  a  day  when  he  arose  in  his 
office  and  started  out  to  lunch.  His  son,  the  late 
Charles  G.  Gates,  noticed  that  his  father's  shoe  lace  was 
unfastened. 

"  Wait  a  moment,  father,"  requested  the  young  man. 

As  the  father  halted  and  stood,  the  son  knelt  at  his 
feet  and  tied  his  shoe.  Nothing  much  could  have  been 
wrong  with  a  father  and  a  son  between  whom  there 
was  such  a  tender  tie.  And  both  were  fat. 

Another  clearly  open  window  to  the  character  of  John 
W.  Gates  is  his  action  during  the  iron  panic  winter  of 
1903-4.  The  Illinois  Steel  Company  shut  down  its 
plants  at  Chicago  and  nearly  twenty  thousand  workers 
were  thrown  out  of  employment.  Mr.  Gates  was  a  di- 
rector. He  opposed  closing  down.  At  the  same  time 
he  controlled  the  Consolidated  Steel  &  Wire  Works  at 
Joliet.  He  kept  these  going  and  carried  nearly  ten 
thousand  workmen  through  a  critically  hungry  period. 

All  this  was  creditable  to  him  as  an  economic  human- 
ist. The  way  that  he  secured  enough  business  so  that 
he  could  pull  through  was  an  unusual  tribute  to  his 
business  perspicacity  and  perhaps  nerve.  He  went  to 
England  and  saw  the  late  Joseph  Chamberlain. 

When  Mr.  Gates  explained  that  the  object  of  his  visit 
was  to  sell  him  steel  products  of  the  very  kind  that  Mr. 
Chamberlain  was  manufacturing  at  Birmingham,  the 
great  colonial  secretary  of  the  empire  was  at  first 
amused,  and  then  was  insulted  or  pretended  to  be.  Chi- 


204  THE  IKON  HUNTEK 

cago  insistence  would  not  be  thwarted.  Mr.  Gates  de- 
clared that  he  could  sell  to  Mr.  Chamberlain  better  goods 
at  a  lower  price  than  the  latter's  cost.  This  interested 
the  Birmingham  iron  master.  He  went  into  details, 
and  the  result  was  a  big  order  for  the  Joliet  mills  at  a 
critical  time.  While  at  Birmingham,  Mr.  Chamberlain 
took  Mr.  Gates  through  his  steel  plants.  When  they 
finished  he  asked  Mr.  Gates  what  he  thought  of  them. 
Blunt  enough  usually  and  outspoken  as  an  avalanche, 
Mr.  Gates  posed  cautiously. 

"  You  really  do  not  wish  me  to  tell  you  honestly 
what  I  think,  do  you  ?  " 

"  Indeed,  it  will  be  a  favor  to  me,"  replied  the  big 
Englishman. 

"  Well,  I'd  junk  the  whole  outfit  and  wreck  the  build- 
ings," was  the  explosive  reply. 

Mr.  Chamberlain  was  visibly  shocked,  but  he  smiled 
and  asked,  "  What  then  ?  " 

"  Then  I  would  engage  John  W.  Garrett,  of  Joliet, 
Illinois,  United  States  of  America,  to  build  you  a  real 
works  with  modern  machinery  and  structural  conven- 
iences." 

Joseph  Chamberlain  took  the  advice.  Mr.  Garrett 
thoroughly  rebuilt  the  Birmingham  plant,  and  the  un- 
dertaking was  speedily  justified  by  the  increased  earn- 
ings that  resulted  from  the  reduced  cost  of  an  increased 
and  improved  production. 

We  organized  the  Moose  Mountain  Mining  Company, 
Limited.  Among  those  who  took  stock,  in  addition  to  the 
quarter  interest  that  Mr.  Gates  signed  for,  was  Mr.  John 
J.  Mitchell,  president  of  the  Illinois  Trust  and  Savings 
Bank  of  Chicago ;  James  C.  Hutchins,  attorney  for  Mr. 
Mitchell's  bank;  Mr.  John  Lambert,  a  business  associ- 
ate of  Mr.  Gates ;  Blair  &  Co.,  New  York  bankers,  and 


GATES  AND  MITCHELL  205 

Joseph  W.  Sellwood.  The  agreement  we  had  made  ob- 
ligated them  to  give  me  one-fourth  of  the  stock  of  the 
company  free  of  carrying  charges  of  all  kinds.  On  my 
part  I  was  to  secure  to  the  company  at  actual  cost  all  of 
the  Moose  Mountain  iron  ore  lands.  There  were  con- 
ditions and  requirements  relating  to  financing  and  de- 
veloping the  properties. 

I  was  made  president  and  treasurer  of  the  company. 
Just  as  soon  as  I  was  given  my  quarter  interest,  I  di- 
vided it  with  a  Chicago  promoter  who  had  agreed  to 
finance  me  at  Moose  Mountain,  but  had  failed  to  live 
up  to  his  agreement.  As  I  looked  at  it  he  had  done  his 
best  and  so  I  treated  him  just  as  if  he  had  been  worthy. 

It  turned  out  to  be  the  most  unwarranted  business  act 
of  my  life  as  I  view  it  now,  because  this  man  sent  word 
to  me  to  "  go  to  hell  "  when  it  was  supposed  I  was  dying. 

I  had  injured  my  spine  by  a  fall  in  the  woods.  A 
dead  tree  trunk  lying  across  a  rocky  ravine  gave  way 
as  I  walked  over  it.  I  fell  nearly  twenty  feet  and 
alighted  upon  the  coccyx  on  a  sharp,  jagged  rock.  This 
endangered  my  life.  When  it  was  supposed  and  com- 
monly reported  that  I  would  not  recover,  a  good  many 
interesting  things  occurred  that  emphasize  the  folly  of 
jumping  on  a  man,  or  consigning  him  to  the  eternal 
bow-wows  just  because  he  is  going  to  die.  At  least  wait 
until  he  is  dead. 

A  tailor  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie  told  a  lawyer  that  he  had 
informed  me  about  Moose  Mountain,  and  later  claimed 
he  had  introduced  to  me  a  man  who  had  discovered  the 
iron  ore  and  showed  it  to  me.  This  entitled  him  to  a 
share  or  a  commission  according  to  his  view,  and  it 
might  have  if  there  had  been  a  vestige  of  truth  in  what 
he  said.  Eager  to  earn  a  fee  and  perhaps  figuring  that 
my  family  would  settle  the  claim  in  order  to  save  me 


206  THE  IKON  HUNTER 

from  annoyance  while  ill,  and  that  if  I  died  it  surely 
would  be  easy  to  make  the  false  claim  stick,  a  lawyer 
took  the  case. 

There  is  no  law  against  champerty  in  Michigan.  I 
was  told  about  the  case  and  insisted  that  it  be  held  up 
until  I  was  well  enough  to  fight  it.  That  it  was  a  purely 
fabricated  affair  for  purpose  of  robbery  could  easily  be 
proven.  Never  thinking  that  the  person  with  whom  I 
had  divided  my  interest  without  the  cost  to  him  of  a 
penny,  would  feel  otherwise  than  a  deep  sense  of  pleas- 
ure at  the  opportunity  to  be  of  assistance,  I  directed  my 
secretary  to  write  him  fully  as  to  the  details  and  ask 
him  to  look  after  matters  until  I  recovered.  This  man 
also  thought  I  was  done  for  undoubtedly,  because  he 
sent  me  word  that  I  could  go  to  hell;  that  he  was  not 
taking  on  any  law  suits  that  he  could  duck  and  so  on. 

Of  course  I  was  not  told  this  until  after  some  months 
when  I  had  recovered  my  health  sufficiently  to  resume 
work.  Then  the  case  was  speedily  taken  into  court. 
They  sued  for  fifty  thousand  dollars ;  finally  they  offered 
to  settle  for  various  sums  down  to  one  thousand  dollars. 

Judge  Joseph  H.  Steere  then  presided  as  circuit 
judge  where  the  case  was  brought.  He  was  my  intimate 
personal  friend  and  business  associate.  Consequently 
he  asked  that  another  judge  should  hear  the  case,  and  it 
came  up  before  the  late  Judge  Streeter  of  Houghton 
County.  Evidently  the  tailor's  lawyer  had  been  fooled, 
for  as  soon  as  a  portion  of  the  testimony  was  in  he  threw 
up  his  hands  and  the  case  was  dismissed. 

Enough  of  it  was  heard  to  prove  clearly  that  the  story 
was  a  stupid  lie.  The  claimant  said  that  he  had  intro- 
duced a  woodsman  to  me  and  that  this  woodsman  had 
shown  me  the  Moose  Mountain  properties.  I  proved 
that  the  woodsman  they  produced  had  never  been  to 


GATES  AND  MITCHELL  207 

Moose  Mountain,  even  at  the  time  of  the  trial,  and  that 
he  had  been  employed  by  me  to  do  certain  work  three 
years  before  the  tailor  claimed  he  had  introduced  him 
to  me.  It  was  also  clearly  proven  and  made  of  official 
record  that  I  had  made  the  discovery  of  the  Moose 
Mountain  Iron  Range,  the  greatest  iron  ore  district  in 
Canada.  After  the  case  ended  so  flatly,  the  tailor 
moved  away  from  Sault  Ste.  Marie. 

Later,  when  I  was  a  candidate  for  Governor,  the  pub- 
lisher of  a  paper  at  Escanaba,  Michigan,  used  this  case 
as  a  basis  for  printing  libelous  statements  about  me.  I 
had  him  arrested  for  criminal  libel  and  he  was  con- 
victed. When  he  published  the  libel  I  really  believe  he 
thought  that  he  was  in  the  right,  because  I  had  known 
him  well  and  was  aware  of  his  high  character,  his  cour- 
age and  his  desire  to  serve  the  public  unflinchingly.  Of 
course  such  things  travel  far,  so  that  a  man's  only  fun- 
damental protection  is  his  own  knowledge  of  himself 
and  within  himself  of  what  he  really  is,  for  "  as  a  man 
thinketh  in  his  heart  so  is  he." 

I  would  not  have  had  the  publisher  arrested  and 
punished  if  I  had  not  been  convinced  that  it  was  a  pub- 
lic duty.  Public  opinion  and  the  libel  laws  are  the 
only  censors  of  a  free  press,  and  their  invocation  is  the 
only  agency  of  determining  the  course  of  the  press  be- 
tween freedom  and  license. 

At  various  times  I  was  given  chances  to  sell  out  my 
interest  at  Moose  Mountain  and  I  was  anxious  to  do  so. 
There  was  no  stock  on  the  market,  it  has  never  been 
listed,  and  there  was  no  certain  way  of  measuring  its 
value.  Pittsburg  parties  offered  me  as  much  money 
as. I  thought  I  ever  wanted,  although  the  sum  was  not 
large  as  rich  men  compare  and  understand  amounts.  I 
was  eager  to  sell  for  a  good  many  reasons.  Chiefly  I 


208-  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

did  not  enjoy  being  tied  down.  We  were  on  the  eve 
of  active  mining  and  I  did  not  and  do  not  claim  to  be  a 
practical  mining  man.  It  was  my  duty,  as  I  looked 
upon  it,  to  inform  my  associates  of  the  offer,  although 
there  was  no  agreement  that  required  such  a  proceeding. 

I  went  to  Chicago  and  told  Mr.  Gates  and  Mr. 
Mitchell.  These  men  were  older  than  I  and  had  the 
largest  interest  in  Moose  Mountain.  More  than  kindly 
in  their  manner  towards  me  they  assumed  a  fatherly  at- 
titude that  I  shall  always  remember  with  gratitude.  It 
was  in  Mr.  Gates'  office.  He  and  Mr.  Mitchell  each  put 
a  hand  on  my  shoulders  and  said : 

"  Don't  sell  now.  It  isn't  enough.  We  will  give 
you  more  than  your  offer.  But  if  we  did  you  might  not 
feel  kindly  toward  us  in  the  long  future.  You  would 
believe  that  we  had  taken  an  advantage  of  you,  arid  we 
now  feel  ourselves  that  we  would  be  doing  so  if  we 
bought  your  interest,  or  permitted  you  to  sell  it,  for  the 
amount  of  your  offer.  Also,  we  need  you  with  us  for 
a  time." 

At  that  very  moment  Mr.  Gates  and  Mr.  Mitchell 
and  our  New  York  partners  were  negotiating  with 
McKenzie  and  Mann,  of  the  Canadian  Northern,  to  take 
an  interest  in  Moose  Mountain  and  build  a  railroad  into 
it.  I  did  not  know  of  this.  They  could  just  as  well 
have  made  a  few  hundred  thousands  out  of  my  interest 
as  not.  But  that  was  not  the  way  of  John  W.  Gates, 
and  it  is  not  the  way  of  that  prince  of  business  men, 
John  J.  Mitchell,  one  of  the  first  bankers  of  America. 

I  had  already  seen  President  Shaughnessy,  of  the 
Canadian  Pacific  Railway,  about  building  in  from  Sud- 
bury,  and  he  had  ordered  a  survey  made  and  the  branch 
line  was  actually  printed  upon  their  maps.  But  their 
freight  rate  on  the  ore  was  nearly  double  that  of  the 


GATES  AND  MITCHELL  209 

Canadian  Northern.  Also  I  had  had  a  number  of  the 
best  mining  men  of  Lake  Superior  visit  Moose  Moun- 
tain with  me,  including  Messrs.  Helberg,  Sutherland, 
Walter  Fitch,  arid  also  Professor  Seaman,  of  the  Michi- 
gan College  of  Mines  department  of  geology.  All  of 
them  were  enthusiastic.  Doctor  Miller,  Ontario  Pro- 
vincial geologist  and  Doctor  Coleman,  of  the  department 
of  geology  of  Toronto  University,  were  among  the  many 
distinguished  Canadian  mining  men  and  geologists  who 
visited  my  camp. 


CHAPTEK  XXIV 


AT   THE   MOOSE  MOUNTAIN    CAMP 

ALL  of  us  had  moose  meat  throughout  the  year. 
The  unwritten  law  of  the  unsurveyed  country 
did  not  make  a  closed  season.  The  only  demand 
upon  us  was  that  nothing  should  be  wasted,  and  that 
nothing  should  be  killed  that  was  not  used  for  food  or 
fur.  Black  bears  were  a  nuisance.  As  camp  robbers 
they  became  unbelievably  bold.  So  we  had  traps  out 
for  them  all  the  time.  A  French  youth  was  our  most 
expert  bear  trapper.  He  used  pens,  deadfalls,  pits, 
steel  traps,  hooks  on  trees  and  sharpened  spikes  so 
driven  into  the  open  end  of  a  pork  barrel,  that  the  bear 
could  crawl  in  and  lick  the  honey  or  maple  sugar  or 
burnt  molasses  bait  on  the  bottom  of  the  barrel,  but 
could  not  crawl  out.  When  the  bear  would  start  to 
back  out  the  spikes  would  run  into  him  and  very  soon 
Jacques  would  have  a  frantic  bear  cavorting  around 
with  a  barrel  on  the  forward  two-thirds  of  his  body, 
that  held  to  him,  and  muffled  his  growls  and  roars.  It 
was  not  very  humane  and  I  ordered  them  to  kill  a  bear 
as  soon  as  they  caught  him  in  a  barrel.  I  am  afraid 
that  always  they  did  not  obey  this. 

We  also  had  in  our  crew  an  American  boy  named 
Harold,  about  the  same  age  as  Jacques.  They  did  not 
get  along  well  together  and  several  times  they  clashed, 
only  to  a  draw.  Jacques  insisted  on  flying  a  Canadian 

210 


EATING  MOOSE  MEAT  211 

English  beaver  flag  over  the  camp,  and  Harold  would 
haul  it  down  and  run  up  the  Stars  and  Stripes.  Then 
there  would  be  a  fight  and  no  flag  at  all  for  some  time, 
when  Harold  would  run  up  Old  Glory  and  Jacques 
would  pull  it  down,  and  another  drawn  scrap  would 
be  pulled  off. 

Finally  one  day  Jacques  turned  up  missing.  There 
was  no  one  at  the  camp  except  the  two  boys.  All  hands 
had  gone  out  to  celebrate  Dominion  Day,  July  1,  or 
for  some  other  reason.  Harold  searched  for  Jacques 
just  as  faithfully  as  though  they  were  bosom  friends. 
Finally  he  heard  cries  for  help  and  discovered  Jacques 
fast  in  a  steel  bear  trap.  The  boy's  hand  was  caught 
and  his  fingers  crushed.  He  had  stoically  suffered  and 
had  hallooed  for  help,  but  now  that  Harold  was  there 
he  would  not  ask  any  favors.  He  afterwards  said  that 
he  thought,  as  a  matter  of  course,  that  Harold  would 
release  him  at  once.  The  Yankee  boy  had  no  such  idea. 
He  made  the  French  youth  promise  to  be  good  and  allow 
the  American  flag  to  fly  over  the  camp.  When  he  had 
settled  everything  he  got  a  birch  lever,  and  pressing 
down  the  huge  springs  that  clamp  the  ponderous  jaws  of 
the  bear  trap  together,  he  released  his  rival.  There  was 
great  friendship  between  them  forever  afterwards,  and 
the  way  Harold  took  care  of  Jacques7  maimed  hand  was 
good  to  see. 

The  boys  at  camp,  as  boys  in  the  woods  always  do 
for  entertainment  and  relief,  and  by  boys  I  mean  all 
hands  young  and  old,  played  harmless,  though  some- 
times disagreeable,  tricks  upon  every  visitor  that  they 
dared  subject  to  their  fun.  A  prominent  Chicago  doc- 
tor was  a  guest.  He  shot  a  young  moose.  It  was  late 
in  August  and  the  two-year-old  bull  was  fat  and  juicy 
and  just  the  thing  for  camp.  But  it  was  too  good  a 


212  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

chance  for  the  boys  to  have  some  fun  for  them  to  over- 
look. So  they  sent  word  to  Sudbury  and  had  the 
doctor  arrested  by  fake  constables,  not  only  at  Sudbury 
but  at  several  towns  between  there  and  the  American 
border.  Even  after  the  August  moose-slayer  had  gotten 
out  of  Canada  they  had  a  telegram  for  his  arrest  sent 
to  the  American  Sault.  By  this  time  it  had  gotten  on 
his  nerves,  as  he  had  spent  nearly  two  hundred  dollars 
in  fees,  tips,  bribes,  eats  and  drinks,  and  had  obtained 
the  impression  that  the  Canadians  are  the  biggest  lot 
of  crooks  in  the  world.  To  escape  further  persecution 
he  hid  in  a  cellar,  and  left  town  towards  Chicago  on  a 
freight  train. 

It  was  a  long  time  before  he  discovered  that  he  had 
not  seen  a  bona-fide  Canadian  constable,  which  did  not 
prevent  him  from  continuing  the  story  he  had  been 
telling  of  how  he  had  escaped  from  the  Northwest 
Mounted  Police,  when  he  had  not  been  within  a  thou- 
sand miles  of  where  that  fine  body  of  men  operate. 
•  Upon  an  afternoon  in  early  November  Donald  Mann's 
private  car  was  sidetracked  at  Sudbury.  He  had  not 
then  given  into  the  British  exchequer  enough  to  have 
been  made  a  knight,  so  he  was  just  plain  Dan  Mann,  a 
big,  wholesome,  industrious,  brave,  enjoyable  person. 
I  met  him  at  the  railroad  and  took  him  to  Moose 
Mountain. 

By  this  time  I  had  gouged  a  road  into  the  wilderness 
and  had  taken  in  drills,  boiler  and  other  machinery. 
The  road  was  not  a  Via  Appia  by  any  means.  It  clam- 
bered over  rocky  kopjes  and  ascended  a  great  norite 
dyke,  that  may  form  the  northern  rim  of  a  huge  volcanic 
crater  that,  according  to  the  conjecture  of  some,  includes 
the  entire  Sudbury  nickel  formation. 

This  wall  of  rock  gave  us  a  wonderful  view  that 


EATING  MOOSE  MEAT  213 

strained  the  vision  to  the  sky  line.  Not  a  soul  lived, 
or  ever  was,  where  the  sweep  of  eye  ranged  from  hill 
to  valley  and  lake.  Pointed  conifers  looked  like  so 
many  green  serpent  tongues  or  earth  spearmen  march- 
ing up  to  attack  the  hosts  of  Jove.  Winding  over 
plains  and  across  muskeg  marshes,  where  the  corduroy 
floated  like  pontoons  and  the  horses  should  have  been 
shod  with  driving  calks,  the  blind  worm  trail  drew  us 
on.  My  companion  speculated  upon  the  agricultural 
and  timber  value  of  the  region,  and  has  had  his  roseate 
prophecies  already  justified.  We  crossed  several  creeks 
arid  rivers  and  came  to  a  long,  flat  stretch  of  gold-bear- 
ing sands  carried  down  by  the  old  ice,  and  by  the  west 
branch  of  the  Verraillion. 

Upon  this  peneplain  grew  banksian  pine  arid  blue 
berries  and  trailing  arbutus.  At  early  springtime  the 
air  is  laden  with  the  smell  of  heavy  sugars  of  blos- 
soms. I  never  pass  a  sandy  stretch  similar  to  this 
one  that  I  do  not  especially  marvel  at  the  chemistry  of 
nature,  and  ask  where  does  the  floweret  growing  in  the 
white  sand  obtain  its  sensuous  breath  of  sweetest  garden 
love,  rare  enough  to  make  the  wild  rose  marry  the  wood 
violet  if  God's  nature  police  would  permit. 

I  told  Mr.  Mann  about  a  close  call  I  had  one  early 
morning  in  this  garden  of  cpigaea.  I  had  left  camp 
long  before  daylight.  Just  when  the  sun  made  the  iri- 
descent dew  drops  clinging  to  the  arbutus  sepals  look 
like  little  fairy  soap  bubbles,  I  entered  this  dry  a  die 
stretch.  I  drank  the  morning  fragrance  in  all  its  moist 
freshness.  It  seemed  to  me  that  I  could  taste  it  and  I 
believe  I  did. 

All  at  once  my  senses  refused  to  function,  or  else 
everything  took  on  such  a  dead  average  of  delight  that 
I  could  neither  distinguish  nor  record  it.  Greedy  for 


214  THE  IKON  HUNTEK 

more  of  the  nectar  I  got  down  upon  my  hands  and  knees, 
and  crawled  among  the  lush  flowers,  sniffing  and  sniffing 
deep  rhinal  drafts  from  the  acres  of  pink  and  white 
emarginate  clusters  that  carpeted  the  earth.  Pine 
needles  bore  up  the  hairy  vines  and  waxen  leaves,  and 
I  did  riot  make  a  sound. 

What  is  it  tells  us  of  the  presence  of  the  unseen  ?  A 
subtle  something  registers  mysteriously  and  is  vaguely 
communicated  to  our  senses,  whereupon  we  uncon- 
sciously look  up  and  around.  This  happened  to  me 
while,  like  Nebuchadnezzar,  I  was  on  all  fours. 

Horror!  an  Indian  stood  with  leveled  rifle  pointing 
at  me. 

I  gave  a  whoop  and  he  gave  one  too. 

Then  he  started  to  run  away.  I  ordered  him  to 
stop  and  he  obeyed.  He  managed  to  make  me  under- 
stand that  he  had  taken  me  for  a  bear,  and  that  he 
would  have  shot  before  only  I  kept  on  moving,  and  he 
waited  for  a  standing  shot  to  make  it  sure.  When  he 
saw  me  as  a  man  he  was  greatly  frightened  because  of 
the  Indian  superstition  that  a  bear,  and  also  some  other 
animals,  may  turn  into  a  man. 

The  bear  is  nearly  always  an  Indian  avatar.  Nor 
was  the  Indian  aware  of  the  presence  of  a  white  man 
in  that  country.  It  was  a  close  call  indeed.  I  was 
glad.  The  Indian  was  glad.  I  gave  him  all  of  the 
tobacco  I  had  and  we  parted  good  friends.  Some  time 
later  I  saw  him  on  the  Abitibi. 


CHAPTER  XXV 

SIB  DONALD  MANN  PROPOSES  TO  USE  DOUBLE-BITTED  AXES 
AS    WEAPONS    IN    A    DUEL    WITH    A    RUSSIAN    COUNT 

I  ENJOYED  Dan  Mann  all  the  time.  He  was  as 
open  as  a  full  moon  and  looked  as  honest.  Our 
first  night  together  in  the  big  woods  was  spent 
like  boys  who  had  not  seen  each  other  for  a  long  time. 
That  was  the  way  it  was  with  us,  for  we  had  never  seen 
each  other  before  except  that  all  real  men  are  always 
boys  and  very  much  alike;  it  is  only  when  there  is 
something  the  matter  with  men  that  they  are  queer  and 
different.  We  talked  nearly  all  night.  He  told  me 
quite  fully  the  remarkable  story  of  his  life  —  his  inter- 
esting association  with  McKenzie,  their  very  modern 
financiering  and  much  of  the  business  minutiae,  the 
mastery  of  which  is  by  some  standards  of  judging 
supposed  to  make  men  great. 

Both  McKenzie  and  Mann  had  started  as  poor  boys 
in  Canada.  Mann  did  not  go  to  school.  He  had  to 
work  or  starve.  In  the  winter  he  went  to  the  woods  as 
a  lumberjack.  One  winter  he  spent  in  Cheboygan 
County,  Michigan,  making  ties.  He  became  a  fine  ax- 
man  and  expert  in  swinging  a  broad  ax. 

From  the  woods  and  the  ranks  of  a  common  section 
laborer  he  developed  in  early  middle  life  to  be  a  wizard 
of  industry,  and  a  transcontinental  railroad  builder. 
The  McKenzie  and  Mann  policy,  bv  which  they  con- 

215 


216  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

structed  disconnected  portions  of  railroads  across  the 
country,  and  obtained  many  small  land  grants  and  bo- 
nuses without  attracting  the  opposition  of  the  powerful 
Canadian  Pacific  and  Grand  Trunk  giants,  is  a  story 
unexcelled  of  clever  business  and  political  strategy. 
When  they  got  ready  they  just  connected  a  lot  of  blind 
termini  and  lo!  a  transcontinental  fabric.  When  it 
was  too  late  the  enemy  awakened.  There  is  room  for 
all  of  them. 

I  think  it  was  our  second  night  together  in  the  woods 
when  I  asked  him  about  a  duel  he  had  in  China,  ac- 
cording to  a  story  told  me  in  Tien  Tsin  by  Captain 
Rich,  then  American  railroad  engineer  for  the  Chinese 
government. 

"  It  was  such  a  fool  thing,"  he  said,  "  and  I  was 
scared  to  death  and  could  not  see  any  humor  in  it  then. 
A  lot  of  us  had  gone  to  China  to  obtain  railroad  fran- 
chises. The  railroad  building  world  was  represented: 
Americans,  British,  Germans,  Belgians,  French,  Rus- 
sians and  so  forth,  in  Shanghai.  We  were  the  only  Ca- 
nadians and  the  foreigners  never  knew  whether  to  class 
us  with  the  British  or  the  Americans.  The  Chinese 
government  had  decided  to  build  railroads.  They  were 
determined  thus  to  connect  Pekin  with  Canton,  via 
Hankow  on  the  Yangtse.  Captain  Rich  of  Minneapolis 
had  charge  of  things  for  Li  Hung  Chang,  who  was  then 
at  his  zenith  of  power,  the  old  rascal.  There  was  much 
delay.  We  were  making  our  headquarters  at  Shanghai. 

"  Some  of  us  combined  our  interests  and  finally  there 
were  several  pools  working,  one  against  the  other.  In 
the  evening  we  would  gather  at  a  place  on  Bubbling 
Well  Road,  which  as  you  know  runs  back  from  the  bund 
to  the  country  near  the  International  Institute. 

"  Here  we  would  play  a  stiff  game  of  poker,  drink 


DUEL  WITH  A  RUSSIAN  COUNT      217 

Scotch  whiskey  and  josh  each  other.  I  had  it  in  my 
head  all  the  time  that  a  Russian,  with  a  title,  who  was 
always  eager  to  sit  in,  was  crooked.  I  watched  him. 
One  night,  near  twelve  o'clock,  when  several  were 
woozy  with  booze,  and  several  were  not  who  pretended 
to  be,  I  caught  Mr.  Russian  holding  out  cards.  Ho 
wasn't  as  big  as  the  Slav  average,  and  when  I  slapped 
him  for  calling  me  a  liar  he  nearly  went  down.  There 
was  some  commotion,  which  soon  passed  over,  and  I 
went  to  my  room  in  the  Astor  House.  Hotels  all  over 
the  world  were  named  in  those  days  for  the  old  lower 
Broadway  Astor  House  of  the  forties. 

"  Next  day  I  received  a  challenge  to  fight.  It  made 
me  nervous  enough.  Not  being  what  is  called  a  natural 
born  gentleman,  I  was  all  the  more  anxious  to  conduct 
myself  becomingly.  I  had  never  had  a  pistol  or  a 
sword  in  my  hands,  and  I  felt  squeamish  in  my  abdo- 
men whenever  I  thought  about  it.  Nothing  to  do  but 
to  go  to  a  Shanghai  friend.  He  asked  me  what  weapons 
I  knew  how  to  use  and  told  me  it  was  my  privilege  to 
choose.  I  told  him  I  had  never  had  any  practice  with 
anything  except  a  pick,  shovel  and  ax. 

"  My  friend  advised  me  to  select  double-bitted  axes 
as  weapons. 

"  I  knew  I  could  easily  cut  the  Russian's  head  off 
with  an  ax  and  I  fancy  he  thought  so  too,  because  his 
agent  said  they  would  not  even  consider  a  fight  with  such 
weapons ;  that  they  were  vulgar  and  did  not  come  within 
the  code  duello. 

"  My  friend  told  him  that  in  Canada  the  ax  was  a 
weapon  of  chivalry;  that  it  was  classical  to  speak  of 
burying  or  digging  up  the  hatchet,  meaning  a  small 
ax,  and  that  it  was  the  sword  that  was  vulgar,  citing 
that  they  used  it  to  cut  corn  with  and  butcher  hogs. 


218  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

"  There  was  much  parleying.  We  stuck  for  the  ay 
and  the  duel  was  off.  As  the  Russian  backed  off  I  got 
very  blood-thirsty,  and  pictured  myself  constantly  as 
swinging  at  his  neck  just  at  the  collar  button  with  a 
five-pound,  double-edged  ax.  Perhaps  he  had  a  wart 
on  his  neck.  If  so  I  would  split  it  clean  through  the 
center." 

Going  over  Moose  Mountain  lands  seemed  to  be  a 
more  or  less  perfunctory  work  for  Mr.  Mann.  He  was 
large  and  heavy,  and  had  been  riding  in  a  private  car 
too  much  for  the  good  of  his  wind.  I  showed  him  the 
biggest  outcrop,  a  veritable  mountain  of  ore  it  looked, 
and  took  him  to  several  exposures  I  had  stripped,  and 
also  showed  him  many  diamond  drill  cores. 

"  What's  the  use  ?  "  he  puffed.  "  That  first  big  show- 
ing is  enough  and  to  spare  if  we  can  agree  on  a  pricei, 
and  all  the  rest  is  velvet.77 

I  did  not  know  that  a  visitor  from  Paris  that  I  had 
entertained  at  Moose  Mountain  for  some  days,  and 
who  seemed  deeply  interested,  was  really  an  expert  for 
McKenzie  and  Mann. 

They  wanted  the  property  for  financing  purposes. 
With  it  they  could  make  a  strong  showing  of  the  wealth 
surely  existent  in  the  unknown  domain.  Cobalt  was 
just  beginning  to  make  known  its  fabulous  riches  in 
silver.  It  would  be  easy  to  make  an  exhibit  that  would 
enable  them  to  obtain  all  the  money  they  desired. 

In  this  way  I  sold  my  Moose  Mountain  interests  for 
enough  to  insure  a  modest  independence,  and  to  per- 
mit me  to  live  such  life  of  study  and  readiness  for 
public  service  as  I  might  choose. 

McKenzie  and  Mann  built  many  miles  of  railroad  by 
way  of  connecting  their  transcontinental  links,  and  in 
doing  so  they  opened  this  great  mining  region.  A 


DUEL  WITH  A  RUSSIAN  COUNT      219 

branch  to  Key  Inlet,  on  Georgian  Bay,  gave  them  a 
harbor  and  place  for  ore  docks  and  water  shipment. 

Mr.  Mann  volunteered  to  name  for  me  the  town  that 
would  grow  at  Moose  Mountain.  Mr.  Sell  wood  de- 
sired the  honor.  I  did  not  know  this.  To  me  it  was  a 
small  matter  indeed.  When  Mr.  Sell  wood  broached  it 
to  Mr.  Mann,  the  latter  remembered  his  promise  to 
me. 

"That's  nothing,"  said  the  former,  "let's  play  a 
game  of  seven-up.  You  represent  Osborn.  If  I  win 
the  town  will  be  given  my  name;  if  you  win,  call  it 
Osborn." 

Sellwood  won  and  I  am  glad  of  it.  He  has  a  good 
many  monuments  and  deserves  them  all. 

My  first  thought  when  I  received  the  money  from 
Moose  Mountain,  was  of  my  wife.  She  had  stood  by 
valiantly  from  twelve  dollars  a  week  and  wolves,  until 
now  we  had  quite  enough  to  enjoy  life  with;  not  that 
life  had  not  been  enjoyable  all  the  time,  because  it  had 
been. 

I  made  and  carried  out  plans  to  help  all  our  relatives 
who  needed  help.  This  included  the  happy  privilege 
of  insuring  the  comfort  of  my  mother  for  the  remainder 
of  her  wonderful  life  of  suffering  and  service.  I  also 
made  provision  for  continuing  the  care  of  two  brothers, 
who  were  entirely  dependent  upon  me  because  of  com- 
plete invalidism. 

There  was  neither  disinclination  to  do  these  things, 
nor  self-praise  for  the  performance.  It  seemed  to  me 
to  be  a  clear  and  pleasing  duty.  I  had  been  blessed 
with  means  and  health  and  they  had  not.  Perhaps 
God  had  given  me  some  for  them  and  made  me  a 
trustee.  I  thought  He  had,  and  that  I  owed  it  to  them. 
Then,  too,  I  could  not  tell  why  I  was  not  in  their  place 


220  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

and  they  in  mine,  so  I  was  determined  to  treat  them  as 
I  would  have  wished  to  have  been  treated  if  our  condi- 
tions had  been  reversed. 

My  youngest  brother  William,  possessing  an  alert  and 
acute  intellect,  has  been  completely  bedridden  for  years 
and  has  suffered  severe  pain.  Throughout  all  of  it,  and 
the  prospects  no  better  for  as  long  as  he  lives,  he  has 
been  a  cheerful  Christian  with  the  best  personal  phi- 
losophy I  have  ever  known  about. 

From  time  to  time  I  have  given  things  to  my  home 
town,  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  Michigan,  which  has  always 
shown  me  a  sympathy  and  friendship  and  support  that 
would  be  a  sufficient  reward  for  any  man,  no  matter  if 
his  deserts  were  easily  much  greater  than  mine;  and 
an  inspiration  as  well.  In  return  for  its  attitude  I 
loved  the  town  and  all  its  people,  and  nurtured  always 
in  my  heart  a  desire  to  do  things  for  it.  I  could  not 
give  it  much,  but  I  could  do  what  lay  within  my  power 
to  show  my  appreciation.  Early  in  my  travels  I  began 
to  select  curios  for  the  fine  Melville  museum  in  the 
high  school.  Once  in  Japan  I  procured  the  first  stone 
torii  ever  sent  to  America  and  also  several  Shinto  me- 
morial lanterns.  These  artistic  things  are  in  the  gov- 
ernment park  at  the  Sault. 

In  Bucharest  I  saw  a  bronze  lupa  di  Roma,  the  she 
wolf  that  gave  mothering  care  to  Romulus  and  Remus. 
It  was  given  by  the  city  of  Rome  to  the  city  of  Bucharest 
to  commemorate  the  conquest  of  the  Dacians  by  Trojan. 
I  had  a  duplicate  cast  at  Naples,  which  now  occupies  a 
place  in  the  city  hall  grounds.  It  symbolizes  the  tender 
relation  between  animals  and  mankind,  and  their  inter- 
dependence. Italians  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie  at  once  par- 
ticularly sensed  its  classical  bearing.  A  miniature  rep- 


DUEL  WITH  A  RUSSIAN  COUNT      221 

lica  of  this  wolf  in  gold  was  recently  given  to  Mrs. 
Woodrow  Wilson  by  the  city  of  Rome. 

When  Etienne  Brule  came  to  Sault  Ste.  Marie  in 
1618,  he  found  the  majestic  river  bank  flanked  by  great 
elms,  indigenous  here.  Long  ago  almost  all  of  these 
paid  tribute  to  the  axmen,  who  might  easily  have  spared 
these  noble  trees,  but  did  not.  To  restore  them,  and 
also  cure  a  treeless  city,  I  gave  a  thousand  young  elms. 
Several  hundred  are  growing  finely  and  in  a  few  years 
will  change  and  improve  the  appearance  of  the  town. 

As  a  tired  boy  in  Milwaukee  I  often  slept  on  Sunday 
morning,  in  a  room  near  St.  James  Episcopal  Church, 
until  the  chimes  of  St.  James  would  awaken  me.  Then 
I  would  lie  and  listen,  and  half  awake  I  would  dream 
things.  My  room  was  in  a  cheap  tenement,  back  on 
Clybourne  Street.  St.  James  is  on  stately  Grand 
Avenue. 

It  was  then  the  church  of  Alexander  Mitchell  and 
other  millionaires.  Across  from  it  was  the  Mitchell 
mansion,  and  near  to  it  on  the  east  was  the  rich  home 
of  James  Kneeland,  with  well-kept  grounds  and  swans, 
and  ducks  with  red  mandibles,  floating  in  a  miniature 
mirror  lake.  It  was  then  all  another  world,  and  I  felt 
awed  by  it.  This  did  not  curb  my  dreams.  Some  day 
I  would  give  chimes  to  some  town,  and  they  would  be 
heard  by  other  poor  boys  whose  hearts  would  be  made 
glad  and  light  by  the  songs  of  the  bells. 

Better  chimes  than  those  and  better  played,  and  more 
and  larger  bells  —  eleven  in  all  —  hang  in  St.  James, 
of  Sault  Ste.  Marie.  That  is  how  I,  a  Presbyterian, 
came  to  give  the  bells  to  an  Episcopal  church.  Not 
more  grand  would  they  peal  forth  for  any  name  or 
creed. 


222  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

How  are  we  moved  about  like  checkers  on  the  board 
of  life.  My  dear  friend,  the  rector  of  St.  James  of 
Sault  Ste.  Marie  when  the  bells  were  hung,  is  now,  as 
I  write,  the  rector  of  St.  James  of  Milwaukee.  But 
the  pride  and  power  of  yesterday  are  gone  for  St.  James 
of  Milwaukee,  and  it  is  a  better  and  more  useful  church. 
I  love  it  for  those  chimes  of  long  ago. 


CHAPTEK  XXVI 

WORLD  WORKERS  IN  IRON  IN  ALL  AGES 

THERE  is  no  way  of  telling  much  about  the  be- 
ginning of  the  age  of  iron.  Kitchen  middens 
and  heaps  of  flint  chips  tell  the  story  of  the 
service  of  bones  and  stones  all  over  the  world  where 
primitive  man  has  left  his  wild  kindergarten  marks. 
Copper  implements  were  used  at  a  very  early  time,  and 
there  were  copper  shops  at  many  places  about  Lake  Su- 
perior where  the  native  metal  was  beaten  into  knives, 
spoons,  pans,  pots  and  other  utensils.  One  of  the 
largest  single  discoveries  of  prehistoric  copper  imple- 
ments was  made  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  at  a  place  once  an 
island  in  St.  Mary's  River,  but  now  an  esker-like  ridge 
of  stream-washed  gravel  and  boulders  that  marks  the 
topography  of  the  town  from  west  to  east.  I  have  my 
modest  home  on  this  old  ridge.  Such  finds  as  this  one 
of  well-made  articles  that  seemed  to  be  harder  than  the 
native  metal  have  given  rise  to  the  common  but  er- 
roneous belief  that  the  ancients  knew  how  to  temper 
copper,  an  art  lost  to  this  age.  The  outer  surface  of  the 
beaten  copper  is  somewhat  harder  from  pounding  and 
water  and  air  hardening. 

But  almost  never  is  anything  of  iron  found  with  the 
stones  or  the  bones  or  the  copper.  This  is  not  because 
iron  was  not  wrought,  but  because  it  is  more  perishable 

when  exposed  to  oxygen,  either  in  the  air  or  water,  even 

223 


224  THE  IKON  HUNTEK 

than  wood  under  some  conditions.  There  is  reason  to 
believe  that  iron-making  was  the  first  work  in  metals 
done  by  mankind,  because  the  art  is  advanced  beyond 
any  other  among  the  wholly  uncivilized  tribes  of  Africa 
and  in  other  parts  of  the  world  where  primitive  man  ex- 
ists to-day. 

From  Somaliland  to  Zululand  in  Africa  I  found  iron 
hoes  and  iron  assegai  points  common  among  the  wild 
natives.  The  making  of  these  gave  employment  to  con- 
siderable numbers  of  persons.  There  was  a  distinct 
class  of  iron  workers  in  every  tribe  of  any  size,  except 
among  such  lowly  ones  as  the  pigmy  Dokos  or  others 
of  their  undeveloped  kind.  The  art  was  handed  down 
from  father  to  son,  and  while  methods  were  similar, 
there  was  variety  in  them  and  also  a  difference  in  skill. 
They  smelted  ores,  and  do  so  yet,  except  where  scraps 
of  iron  can  be  procured.  Some  workers  used  stones  for 
hammers  and  bark-tied,  hardened  wood  for  tongs; 
others  had  iron  hammers  and  tongs  quite  well  fashioned. 
Stone  anvils  are  used,  and  the  smith  usually  sits  at  his 
work.  Sometimes  hollowed  sticks  of  wood  were  used 
to  hold  the  cold  end  of  the  piece  of  iron  that  was  being 
wrought.  Bellows  are  most  often  made  of  the  hide  of 
an  ox  or  some  other  animal,  often  of  goat  skins.  In  one 
corner  of  the  bag  thus  formed  is  a  wooden  pipe  about  a 
yard  long  and  bound  in  air  tight  with  rawhide  thongs. 
The  other  end  of  the  skin  bag  is  fastened  to  pieces  of 
flattened  wood  forming  a  mouth  that  shuts  quite  tight 
when  the  bellows  is  being  operated.  This  was  done  by 
hand,  the  smith's  assistant  holding  on  to  rawhide 
handles  above  and  below  on  the  wooden  jaws.  A  stone 
weight  on  the  wooden  pipe  holds  the  bellows  down  quite 
firmly.  Two  bellows  are  used.  By  working  them  al- 
ternately a  steady  blast  of  air  of  considerable  force  is 


WOULD  WOEKEKS  IN  IRON  225 

secured.  A  clay  tunnel  connects  the  wooden  pipe  outlet 
of  the  bellows  with  a  charcoal  fire  built  in  a  rude  forge 
in  the  ground. 

For  smelting  iron  ore  a  larger  number  of  bellows  were 
employed.  Very  often  I  found  abandoned  ant  houses 
utilized  for  a  furnace  and  the  natives  even  drive  out 
the  ants  and  use  their  formidable  formicaries  not  only 
for  furnaces,  but  also  for  grain  bins  and  even  for  human 
dwellings. 

Their  native  hoes  contained  good  enough  iron  so  that 
a  gun  maker  at  Birmingham  made  an  Enfield  rifle  out 
of  some  that  Livingstone  sent  to  England. 

Abbe  Rochon,  of  France,  member  of  the  Academies 
of  Sciences  of  Paris  and  Peter  sburgh,  Astronomer  of 
the  Marine,  Keeper  of  the  King's  Philosophical  Cabinet, 
Inspector  of  Machines,  Money,  etc.,  was  in  Madagascar 
in  1768.  Referring  to  iron  ore  he  says :  "  Iron  mines 
of  an  excellent  quality  are  dispersed  in  great  profusion 
all  over  the  island,  and  very  near  to  the  surface  of  the 
earth.  The  Malegaches  break  and  pound  the  ore  and 
place  it  between  four  stones  lined  with  potter's  clay; 
they  then  employ  a  double  wooden  pump,  instead  of  a 
pair  of  bellows,  to  give  the  fire  more  strength  (blast)  ; 
and  in  the  space  of  an  hour  the  mineral  is  in  a  state  of 
fusion.  The  iron  produced  by  this  operation  is  soft 
and  malleable :  no  better  is  known  in  the  world." 

Abbe  Rochon  was  a  wide  traveler  as  an  official  and 
scientific  observer.  In  his  opinion  the  ancient  Malag- 
asy iron  furnace  was  peculiar  to  that  people.  Inci- 
dentally he  also  tells  an  interesting  story  about  an  ad- 
venturer in  Madagascar  who  buncoed  Benjamin  Frank- 
lin. Poor  Richard  gave  Benjowski  letters  of  recom- 
mendation which  he  used  in  America  to  organize  an  ill- 
fated  expedition  for  the  seizure  of  Madagascar.  Ben- 


226  THE  IKON  HUNTER 

jowski  was  killed  by  French  marines.  I  was  interested 
in  seeing  the  spot  where  he  came  to  grief. 

All  African  travelers  report  seeing  iron  ore  and  iron 
workers,  so  it  is  certain  that  it  is  distributed  all  over 
that  continent.  I  found  big  outcroppings  of  iron  ore 
near  to  both  coal  and  limestone.  Blue  hematite  speci- 
mens that  I  brought  out  and  had  analyzed  turned  out 
to  be  of  fine  Bessemer  quality.  There  is  no  iron  manu- 
facturing in  Africa  except  the  rude  native  operations, 
but  it  is  entirely  possible  and  even  probable  that  Africa 
will  supply  the  world  with  steel,  as  it  surely  can  do. 
Even  now  there  is  a  considerable  shipment  to  America 
and  Europe  of  chrome  iron  ore  from  the  mines  near 
Selukwe  in  Southern  Rhodesia.  The  only  other  large 
production  of  chrome  iron  ore  is  from  the  French  mines 
in  New  Caledonia. 

In  every  one  of  the  eighteen  provinces  of  China  as 
well  as  in  Manchuria  there  are  deposits  of  iron  ore. 
I  have  visited  many  of  these.  Some  of  them  have 
been  worked  for  centuries  in  a  small  and  clumsy  man- 
ner, not  much  better  than  the  Africans  did.  Lack  of 
pumping  facilities  kept  them  on  the  surface,  but  even 
if  pumps  had  been  available  they  would  not  have  been 
used  on  account  of  feng  shui:  their  fear  of  offending 
the  earth  demons.  Both  men  and  women  work  as 
miners.  The  men  are  paid  an  equivalent  of  four  to 
five  cents  in  our  money  and  the  women  two  to  six  cents 
for  a  day  of  eight  hours.  In  addition  some  rice  and  a 
vegetable  called  miso  are  served. 

A  little  while  before  he  died  Li  Hung  Chang  estab- 
lished a  steel  plant  near  Hankow,  the  first  one  in  China. 
It  was  a  kind  of  junk  affair  at  first,  but  has  been  im- 
proved. 

Iron  working  in  China  is  an  ancient  art  and  at  some 


WORLD  WORKERS  IN  IRON          227 

periods  reached  a  high  state  of  perfection.  In  Chinese 
collections  I  saw  fine  coats  of  mail  for  man  and  horse 
made  of  delicate  woven  wire,  so  as  to  be  light,  elastic 
and  effective;  also  lances,  shields,  chains,  traps  and 
other  things  made  before  guns  came  into  use. 

There  are  great  iron  ore  deposits  and  coal  measures 
in  Shansi,  Chi-li,  Shantung  and  Yunnan.  In  fact, 
there  is  more  or  less  iron  ore  in  all  of  the  Chinese 
provinces.  The  iron  district  in  Shansi  and  extending 
beyond  is  one  of  the  largest  in  the  world  and  will  some 
day  be  a  source  of  world's  supply.  At  the  present  time 
very  little  is  being  done.  I  visited  a  number  of  surface 
workings  in  Shansi,  where  the  methods  are  crude  in- 
deed, although  they  do  produce  an  engraving  steel  of 
unexampled  hardness.  A  great  many  persons  were 
employed  in  iron  ore  mining  and  in  iron  making. 
Their  condition  of  life  is  very  miserable  and  their  pay 
is  less  than  two  cents  a  day  in  our  values.  Ignorance 
and  superstition  seem  to  be  instruments  of  conservation 
in  China,  just  as  avarice  is  the  cause  of  feverish  destruc- 
tion in  our  country.  Some  day  the  world  will  turn  to 
China  for  iron  and  coal  and  the  vast  untouched  quan- 
tities there  of  these  twin  necessities  will  be  appreciated. 
During  1916,  1917  and  1918  Japan  has  made  large 
loans  to  the  Northern  Chinese  government,  taking  as 
security  vast  mineral  concessions  comprehending  all  of 
China's  known  iron  ore  fields.  It  is  even  charged  that 
Japan  took  advantage  of  the  world's  engrossment  in 
war  to  exploit  China.  If  the  Northern  forces  are  vic- 
torious in  the  civil  war  in  China,  a  final  title  may  be 
obtained  by  Japan.  But  if  the  Southern  armies  win, 
Japan  will  get  nothing;  nor  is  she  likely  to  profit  by 
a  compromise  that  seems  probable  between  Canton  and 
Pekin.  Japan's  attempt  is  a  gamble  in  iron  ore. 


228  THE  IKON  HUNTEE 

I  spent  several  months  following  the  tracks  of  Abbe 
Hue  in  China,  and  the  trails  of  Marco  Polo  not  only  in 
China,  but  in  other  countries  of  Asia.  Polo  began  his 
travels  in  1260.  In  that  age  his  tours  were  a  source  of 
world  wonder.  He  brought  back  to  Europe  informa- 
tion of  incalculable  value  about  the  work  of  mankind 
in  the  Orient  where  in  every  channel  of  activity  there 
was  higher  development.  Men  in  the  Orient  were 
thinking  better  and  working  with  their  hands  better 
than  the  people  of  the  West.  Europe  was  just  begin- 
ning to  see  the  dawn  of  a  new  day  after  centuries  of 
decadence  and  obliteration.  A  great  many  pronounced 
Polo  an  impostor  and  discredited  his  reports.  Others 
believed  in  him  and  through  these  Europe  was  to  have 
the  benefit  of  Polo's  travels  and  learning.  It  is  aston- 
ishing how  many  of  the  modern  arts  in  their  develop- 
ment in  the  western  world  can  be  traced  to  a  period 
coeval  with  the  post-Polo  era.  Before  that  the  use  of 
coal  was  scarcely  known,  if  at  all,  in  Europe.  Iron 
making  was  nearly  as  primitive  as  it  is  in  the  wilds  of 
Africa  to-day.  In  China,  Persia,  Arabia,  Turkey  and 
India  Polo  learned  by  hearsay  or  actual  contact  and  ob- 
servation of  vast  deposits  of  iron  ore  and  of  most  won- 
derful handicraft  in  steel  of  the  finest  texture.  Con- 
cerning these  things  in  the  kingdom  of  Kerman,  then 
recently  conquered  by  the  Tartars,  Polo  reported 
"  plenty  of  veins  of  steel  and  ondanique ;  the  people  are 
skillful  in  making  steel  harness  of  war,  swords,  bows, 
quivers,  arms  of  every  kind,  bridle  bits,  spurs,  needles, 
etc."  The  "  steel "  mines  referred  to  are  probably  the 
Parpa  iron  mines  on  the  road  from  Kerman  to  Shiraz, 
called  even  to-day  M'aden-i-fulad  (steel  mine)  ;  they  are 
idle  now.  I  saw  old  Kerman  weapons,  daggers,  knives, 
stirrups  and  other  things  made  from  steel,  of  exquisite 


WORLD  WORKERS  IN  IRON          229 

workmanship  and  more  than  justifying  all  of  Polo's 
praise. 

It  is  not  quite  certain  what  is  meant  by  Polo's  "  ondan- 
ique."  Ramusio,  of  Venice,  often  asked  Persian  mer- 
chants who  visited  him  about  it.  They  agreed  in  stat- 
ing that  it  was  a  kind  of  steel  of  such  surpassing 
excellence  and  value  that  in  the  ancient  days  a  man 
who  possessed  a  mirror  or  a  sword  of  andanic  or  ondan- 
ique  regarded  it  as  he  would  a  precious  jewel. 

The  sword  blades  of  India  had  a  great  fame  all  over 
the  East  and  I  heard  them  referred  to  as  having  been 
made  by  workmen  now  extinct,  with  whose  passing  also 
was  lost  an  irrecoverable  art.  At  Teheran  I  learned 
that  Indian  blades  and  considerable  fine  Indian  steel 
had  been  imported  until  quite  recent  times. 

Ctesias  mentions  two  woncferful  Indian  swords  that 
he  got  from  the  King  of  Persia  and  his  mother.  It  is 
not  unlikely  that  this  fine  Indian  steel  is  the  ferrum 
candidum  of  which  the  Malli  and  Oxydracae  sent  one 
hundred  talents  weight  as  a  present  to  Alexander  the 
Great.  Indian  iron  and  steel  are  mentioned  in  the 
Periplus  as  imports  into  the  Abyssinian  ports  and  to 
this  day  may  be  seen  fine  steel  spear  heads  and  imple- 
ments at  Dire  Doua  and  Addis  Abeba,  perhaps  relics 
of  those  ancient  imports. 

Ferrum  Indicum  appears  among  the  Oriental  prod- 
ucts subject  to  duty  in  the  Roman  tariffs  of  Marcus 
Aurelius  and  Commodus.  Salmasius  notes  that  among 
the  rare  Greek  chemical  writings  there  is  a  metallur- 
gical paper  "  On  the  Tempering  of  Indian  Steel." 

Edrisi  mentions  that  excellent  iron  was  produced  in 
the  "  cold  mountains "  northwest  of  Jiruft.  In  the 
Jihan  Numa,  or  Great  Turkish  Geography,  is  the  state- 
ment that  the  "steel"  mines  of  Miriz,  on  the  borders 


230  THE  IKON  HUNTEK 

of  Kerman,  were  famous.  Teixeira  substantiates  this, 
Says  Edrisi :  "  The  Hindus  excel  in  the  manufacture 
of  iron  and  in  the  preparation  of  those  ingredients 
along  with  which  it  is  fused  to  obtain  that  kind  of  soft 
iron  which  is  usually  styled  Indian  steel.  They  also 
have  workshops  wherein  are  forged  the  most  famous 
sabers  in  the  world.  It  is  impossible  to  find  anything  to 
surpass  the  edge  you  get  from  Indian  steel." 

Arabic  literature  contains  many  references  to  the 
fame  of  the  sword  blades  of  India.  Even  the  ancient 
poets  sang  of  them  as  may  be  read  about  in  Freytag's 
translation  of  Hamasa's  collection  of  old  Arab  verse. 
Timur  used  Indian  blades,  and  had  for  his  own  use 
a  Hindu  sword  of  matchless  fineness.  In  the  accounts 
of  the  Mohammedan  conquest  of  India  and  on  down 
through  the  reigns  of  Akbar,  Shah  Jahan  and  other 
Mughals,  the  Hindu  disbelievers'  execution  is  referred 
to  as  being  sent  to  Jihannam  with  the  well- watered 
blade  of  the  Hindu  sword.  The  sword  is  consequently 
personified  as  a  "  Hindu  of  Good  Family,"  according 
to  the  idea  that  a  dead  Hindu  recalcitrant  was  the  only 
good  Hindu,  the  origin  no  doubt  of  the  American  phrase 
as  applied  to  the  American  aborigine,  "  A  good  Indian 
is  a  dead  Indian." 

Throughout  the  Malay  Archipelago  I  found  primitive 
iron  furnaces  such  as  were  used  thousands  of  years  ago 
in  Arabia  and  India,  suggesting  that  they  were  per- 
haps inducted  by  Arab  traders.  In  Madagascar  I  saw 
a  different  type  of  furnace  that  seemed  to  have  been 
originated  by  the  Malagasy.  Indeed  work  in  iron  has 
been  a  dignified  art  and  distinctive  industry  all  over 
the  world  for  multiplied  centuries. 

Chardin  says  of  the  steel  of  Persia :  "  They  combine 
it  with  Indian  steel  which  is  more  tractable  and  held  in 


WOELD  WORKEKS  IN  IRON          231 

greater  estimation."  Dupre,  a  hundred  years  ago, 
writes  that  he  had  thought  that  the  famous  Persian 
sabers  were  made  from  ore  from  certain  mines  in  Khor- 
asan,  but  that  he  had  discovered  himself  in  error  in  that 
there  are  "  no  mines  of  steel  "  in  that  province,  and 
that  he  had  learned  of  the  use  of  steel  disks  imported 
from  Lahore. 

Kenrick  suggests  that  the  "  bright  iron  "  mentioned 
by  Ezekiel  in  chapter  xxvn  as  among  the  wares  of 
Tyre,  must  have  been  Indian  steel,  because  mentioned 
in  connection  with  calamus  and  cassia  and  other  exports 
from  India. 

Pottinger  enumerates  steel  among  the  imports  from 
India  into  Kerman.  Elphinstone  the  Accurate,  in  his 
Caubul,  tells  how  much  Indian  steel  is  prized  in  Af- 
ghanistan, but  that  the  best  swords  are  made  in  Persia 
and  in  Syria.  In  his  "  History  of  India  "  he  calls  at- 
tention to  the  fact  that  the  ancients  sought  steel  in  India 
and  that  the  oldest  known  Persian  poem  contains  praise 
of  it;  that  it  continues  to  be  the  material  used  in  the 
scintillating  scimitars  of  Damascus  and  Khorasan. 

An  old  Indian  officer  in  the  British  service  found  no 
common  knowledge  of  steel-making  among  the  people. 
He  tried  to  tell  a  native,  who  claimed  that  steel  ore 
and  iron  ore  were  separate  and  distinct  materials,  how 
steel  was  manufactured.  The  Indian  was  disgusted 
and  displayed  his  feelings  plainly  by  exclaiming: 
"  You  would  have  me  believe  that  if  I  put  an  ass  in  the 
furnace  it  will  come  forth  a  horse." 

Paulus  Jovius  in  the  sixteenth  century  speaks  of 
the  high  repute  of  Kerman  scimitars  and  lance  points. 
The  blades  were  eagerly  sought  by  the  Turks.  Such 
was  their  unusual  reputation  for  quality  that  it  was  a 
common  boast  that  with  one  blow  a  Kerman  sword 


232  THE  IRON  HUNTEE 

would  cleave  a  European  metal  helmet  without  turning 
the  edge. 

Undoubtedly  the  art  of  fabricating  fine  steel  and  of 
generally  utilizing  iron  ore  was  known  at  the  very  dawn 
of  history  and  is  even  prehistoric.  The  world  has 
shifted  its  skill  to  the  Occident.  Volumes  are  required 
to  tell  the  story  of  iron  ore  and  its  manufacture  in 
Europe,  where  the  Germans,  Swedes  and  English  have 
rivaled  each  other  in  methods  and  production.  Now 
the  great  industry  has  crossed  the  Atlantic  to  find  its 
highest  development  in  both  quality  and  volume.  The 
United  States  leads  the  world  in  iron  ore  production 
and  in  its  manufacture.  It  is  an  enviable  position, 
with  many  interclashing  responsibilities.  The  largest 
business  organization  in  the  world  is  devoted  to  the 
iron  industry.  As  one  stands  illumined  by  the  furnace 
incandescence  in  some  vast  modern  forge  of  Vulcan, 
with  its  wearing  human  machinery  and  its  ponderous 
but  delicately  adjusted  cranes,  dippers,  cars  and  rolls, 
all  moving  as  perfectly  as  watch  wheels  at  the  magic 
touch  of  subtle  electric  currents,  he  cannot  escape  the 
wish  that  man's  relation  to  man  might  be  as  perfectly 
and  happily  arranged. 


CHAPTER  XXVII 

CONCENTRATION  OF  LEAN  ORES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

SIDERITE MAGNETITE HEMATITE 

AT  some  of  the  great  open  pit  mines  in  the  Mesaba 
district  of  Minnesota,  sixty  per  cent,  iron  ore 
has  been  mined  and  loaded  on  the  cars  for  less 
than  five  cents  a  ton,  even  charging  to  cost  account  the 
outlay  for  removing  forty  to  sixty  feet  of  overburden 
that  covered  the  ore  lense.  When  this  is  taken  into 
consideration  and  also  the  added  fact  that  there  are 
adequate  high  grade  ore  reserves  developed  and  unde- 
veloped to  supply  the  world  for  a  hundred  years  and 
longer,  it  is  almost  amazing  that  lean  ores  can  be  profit- 
ably used  in  America.  And  yet  they  are.  The  high 
grade  iron  ores  known  outside  of  the  United  States  are 
of  uncertain  volume,  and  those  in  the  Scandinavian 
arctics  and  in  Brazil  and  China  are  not  advantageously 
located.  Consequently  what  are  regarded  in  this  coun- 
try as  lean  ores  are  esteemed  of  great  value  in  other  iron- 
making  countries. 

I  visited  the  magnetic  concentrating  plants  in  Lulea 
and  Dunderland  and  found  them  producing  a  high- 
grade  ore  by  concentrating  processes  that  are  successful. 
Far  more  unusual  and  interesting  is  the  successful  use 
of  lean  ores  in  America,  where  the  high-grade  ores  are 
not  only  plenteous  but  are  located  perfectly  for  both 
economic  mining  and  transportation.  On  the  Meno- 
minee  Range  at  Iron  Mountain,  near  my  old  home  at 

233 


234  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

Florence,  an  ore  running  about  thirty  per  cent,  in 
metallic  iron  has  been  profitably  produced  at  the  Pewa- 
bic  mine.  This  ore  is  low  in  phosphorus  and  high  in 
silica  and  is  an  ideal  mixing  material  with  Mesaba 
ores.  On  a  Minnesota  range  thirty-five  per  cent,  ores 
are  raised  to  fifty-eight  per  cent,  by  washing.  The 
clumsy  "  grizzlies  "  used  in  this  process  are  most  ef- 
fective. At  Duluth,  Hay  den,  Stone  &  Company  and 
their  associates  have  a  large  experimental  plant  where 
magnetic  ores  containing  thirty  per  cent,  of  metal  are 
enriched  to  sixty-two  and  one-half  per  cent,  by  an  in- 
genious electrical  treatment  perfected  by  a  Hoosier. 
They  treat  one  hundred  tons  of  rocklike  material  a  day, 
which  is  finally  transformed  into  a  rich  sinter  that  is  in 
demand.  This  method  alone  will  make  it  possible  to 
utilize  millions  upon  millions  of  tons  of  lean  magnetite 
that  belts  Lake  Superior  like  a  containing  encasement. 
The  only  place  in  North  America  that  siderite  is  con- 
centrated is  at  the  Magpie  Mine  on  the  Lake  Superior 
north  shore  in  Canada,  above  Sault  Ste.  Marie.  The 
siderite  deposits  there  are  very  extensive.  They  are 
located  in  a  wilderness  abounding  in  caribou,  moose, 
bear  and  wolves  and  other  wildest  animals,  where  I  ex- 
plored for  several  years.  A  formidable  plant  has  been 
erected  for  the  treatment  of  these  ores  by  a  method 
adopted  from  Austria,  where  siderite  was  largely  and 
successfully  refined  before  the  war.  The  operations 
have  been  of  especial  interest  to  American  miners  of 
iron  ore  and  metallurgists.  Although  new  and  most 
unusual  in  this  country,  the  Magpie  siderite  operation 
presents  no  complications  and  is  in  fact  simple.  The 
roasting  is  done  in  regular  cement  kilns  eight  feet  in  di- 
ameter, one  hundred  twenty-five  feet  long,  inclined  one- 
half  inch  per  foot  and  rotated  once  in  two  minutes. 


CONCEISTTKATION  OF  LEAN  OKES     235 

The  ore  is  crushed  to  about  three  inches  and  fed  into  the 
upper  end  of  this  kiln.  The  lower  end  of  the  kiln  is 
fired  with  powdered  coal,  pulverized  so  that  ninety  per 
cent,  will  pass  a  two  hundred  mesh  screen.  A  single 
piece  of  ore  remains  in  the  kiln  about  three  hours ;  that 
is,  that  is  the  length  of  time  it  takes  for  the  ore  to 
work  its  way  from  the  intake  to  the  discharge  end. 

Ordinary  siderite,  without  any  sulphur  present  in 
the  form  of  pyrites,  requires  very  little  heat  for  driving 
off  the  CO2  gas  and  changing  the  ore  into  hematite. 
This  is  an  index  of  Nature's  method.  Magpie  ore  how- 
ever contains  about  one  per  cent,  sulphur  and  eight  per 
cent.  lime.  As  the  lime  has  a  strong  affinity  for  the 
sulphur,  it  requires  a  finishing  temperature  of  about 
1100  degrees  Centigrade  to  dead  roast  the  ore,  that  is 
to  eliminate  all  the  sulphur.  At  the  Helen  Mine  in  the 
same  district  there  is  a  siderite  which  runs  somewhat 
higher  in  sulphur  than  above.  They  experimented 
with  this  at  the  Magpie  and  found  that  a  rotary  kiln 
will  not  satisfactorily  handle  the  ore  containing  over 
two  per  cent,  in  sulphur.  The  roasting  drives  off  the 
volatile  and  at  the  same  time  reduces  the  sulphur  to  a 
point  suitable  for  the  blast  furnace. 

The  siderite,  together  with  the  other  carbonates,  oc- 
curs as  a  band  standing  nearly  vertical  and  striking 
northeast  and  southwest.  This  band  is  broken  by  fold- 
ing and  faults  at  several  points.  The  width  of  the 
siderite  being  mined  varies  from  twenty-eight  feet  to 
sixty-two  feet,  the  average  width  being  about  forty-two 
feet.  The  carbonate  deposit,  as  a  whole,  is  a  sedi- 
mentary bed  lying  between  a  series  of  acid  and  basic 
flaws  and  tuffs  of  volcanic  origin.  The  wall  rock  on  the 
south  is  talcose  schist  with  well  defined  schistosity,  while 
on  the  north  it  is  an  ellipsoidal  basalt  showing  very 


236  THE  IKON  HUNTER 

little  schistosity.  The  contacts  are  not  well  defined 
and  are  not  clean,  so  that  much  care  is  necessary  in 
mining  to  make  sure  that  no  ore  is  left  on  the  wall  and 
that  no  rock  is  broken  into  the  stopes.  Underground 
the  schist  on  the  south  wall  has  very  much  the  appear- 
ance of  the  ore,  but  the  drill  cuttings  from  the  holes 
give  a  good  indication  of  when  the  wall  is  reached. 
The  body  being  mined  has  an  approximate  length  of 
1350  feet.  The  carbonate  band  is  very  much  longer 
than  this  but  narrows  down  on  either  end  so  that  it  is 
not  found  profitable  to  mine  the  ore  except  in  this  area. 

In  roasting  the  siderite  at  the  Magpie  there  is  a  loss 
in  volatile  of  about  thirty  per  cent,  by  weight,  so  that 
nearly  three  tons  of  ore  have  to  be  mined  to  produce  two 
tons  of  finished  material.  Taking  this  into  considera- 
tion, together  with  the  fact  that  the  actual  roasting  op- 
eration costs  are  considerable,  it  was  necessary  to  devise 
a  very  cheap  mining  system  in  order  to  make  the  opera- 
tion as  a  whole  commercially  successful.  Several  min- 
ing methods  were  studied  and  approximate  costs 
worked  out,  but  before  any  method  was  definitely  chosen, 
it  was  decided  to  sink  the  shaft  and  open  up  drifts 
on  two  main  haulage  levels  to  definitely  determine 
the  nature  of  the  ground  and  the  material  to  be 
mined. 

The  shaft  was  therefore  started  on  the  north  side  of 
the  ore  body  about  sixty  feet  from  the  north  contact 
of  the  ore.  The  shaft  is  twenty-four  feet  by  eight  feet 
in  the  rough,  and  is  timbered  with  twelve  inch  by 
twelve  inch  sets,  so  that  the  inside  dimensions  are 
twenty-two  feet  by  six  feet.  It  is  divided  into  four 
compartments,  two  skip  compartments  for  balanced 
Kimberly  skips,  one  cage  compartment  and  one  ladder 
and  pipe  way.  The  shaft  was  sunk  two  hundred  and 


CONCENTRATION  OF  LEAN  ORES     237 

five  feet  to  the  second  level.  It  was  decided  to  use 
eighty-foot  levels  and  to  leave  a  forty-five  foot  floor 
pillar  to  surface.  A  crosscut  was  run  on  each  level 
from  the  shaft  to  the  south  contact  of  the  ore,  and  drifts 
started  from  here  in  either  direction,  these  drifts  follow- 
ing the  south  contact  as  nearly  as  possible.  The  nature 
of  the  ore  passed  through  in  these  drifts  was  closely  ob- 
served and  samples  taken  and  analyses  made  for  each 
ten-foot  section  of  the  drifts.  No  timber  was  necessary 
in  any  of  the  drifts,  but  it  was  noted  that  the  ore  showed 
a  great  number  of  slips  or  cleavage  planes.  These 
slips  have  no  general  direction  but  intersect  each  other 
at  all  angles  and  are  extremely  smooth.  In  scaling  a 
new  drift,  large  wedge-shape  pieces  will  fall  out  from 
the  first  blow  of  the  scaling  bar,  but  when  a  drift  is  once 
thoroughly  scaled,  very  little  material  loosens  from  later 
blasting.  On  account  of  this  feature  of  the  ore,  it  was 
necessary  to  determine  on  a  method  of  mining  which 
would  always  keep  the  miners  close  to  the  back  and 
under  cover.  It  was  therefore  decided  to  use  the  sub- 
level  stoping  system  in  mining  this  deposit. 

The  ore  body  was  blocked  off  into  three  stopes  longi- 
tudinally, divided  opposite  the  shaft  by  a  fifty-foot 
shaft  pillar,  and  four  hundred  feet  west  of  the  shaft  by 
a  diabase  dyke,  one  hundred  feet  wide,  which  cuts  the 
body  at  right  angles.  This  gives  three  stopes  on  each 
level,  approximately  four  hundred  feet  long.  To  de- 
velop these  stopes,  a  raise  is  put  up  at  each  end  of  the 
block  and  a  sublevel  run  to  connect  the  raises.  The  first 
sub  is  eighteen  feet  above  the  level.  The  other  sublevels 
are  twenty-three  feet  from  floor  to  floor.  On  the  upper 
levels,  three  subs  are  used  between  levels,  but  below  the 
second  level  four  subs  are  used,  making  the  distance 
between  levels  one  hundred  and  three  feet.  After  the 


238  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

stopes  have  been  developed  in  this  manner,  the  raise  at 
the  end  of  the  block  nearest  the  shaft  is  made  into  a 
permanent  ladder  and  pipe  way.  Air  lines  are  run 
along  the  floor  of  the  subs  to  the  far  end,  and  mining 
commenced.  Machines  are  set  to  work  breaking  down 
around  the  raise  at  the  far  end  of  the  block  and  this 
opening  is  enlarged  until  the  stope  is  completely  cut 
off.  The  first  sub  is  then  drawn  back  about  fifty  to 
sixty  feet.  By  keeping  the  first  sub  back  this  distance, 
the  muck  does  not  run  into  the  face.  This  also  gives 
the  men  working  on  this  sub  a  chance  to  hand  blast  a 
proportion  of  the  larger  pieces  which  break  from  the 
upper  benches.  Most  of  these  drop  so  that  they  can  be 
reached  from  the  first  sub.  Those  dropping  in  the  open 
stope  have  to  be  blasted  as  they  come  down  into  the 
chutes. 

After  the  stope  has  been  cut  off  from  wall  to  wall, 
section  cutting  is  done  on  each  sub.  At  first  it  was  the 
intention  to  carry  the  subs  step  fashion  with  the  upper 
subs  overhanging  the  lower  ones,  but  the  ground  was 
found  to  be  so  full  of  cleavage  planes  that  these  over- 
hanging benches  fell  when  blasting  out  the  section  cut, 
so  that  now  all  the  subs,  except  the  bottom  ones,  are 
carried  back  together,  the  face  of  the  stope  being  ver- 
tical. In  section  cutting  the  stope,  the  machine  is  set 
up  in  the  sub  and  an  eight-foot  bench  blasted  off.  This 
requires  five  holes,  two  in  front  and  three  behind. 
These  holes  are  about  seven  feet  deep  and  break  to  the 
bottom.  Very  little  mucking  is  necessary  for  the  next 
set-up  and  little  scaling  as  the  back  is  only  eight  feet 
high.  This  section  cut  is  carried  from  wall  to  wall 
and  the  stope  holes  are  drilled  in  the  bench  below  from 
the  same  set-ups.  The  back  holes  are  drilled  with 
stopers  after  the  section  cut  has  been  completed.  The 


CONCENTRATION  OF  LEAN  ORES     239 

whole  face  of  the  stope  is  then  blasted  off  with  a  battery 
shot.  Very  little  powder  is  required,  either  in  the  sec- 
tion cut  or  in  the  stope  blast,  as  there  is  always  an  open 
face  to  break  to.  When  a  stope  on  one  level  has  been 
drawn  back  to  the  starting  raise,  the  chutes  are  taken 
out,  rails  and  pipe  lines  removed  and  the  main  level 
used  as  a  sub.  In  this  way  all  mucking  is  avoided. 
The  ore  remaining  in  the  bottom  of  one  level,  which 
will  not  run  out  of  the  chutes,  is  dropped  to  the  level 
below.  On  the  bottom  sub  no  back  holes  are  used,  ex- 
cept in  the  corners  of  the  stope,  as  this  sub  is  carried 
higher  than  the  rest,  thus  leaving  a  thinner  space  be- 
tween it  and  the  second  sub.  The  rail  and  pipe  lines, 
removed  from  the  level  which  is  drawn  back,  are  used 
on  the  lower  level  in  the  development  work,  so  that  very- 
few  new  pipes  or  rails  are  required. 

On  the  main  haulage  level,  crosscuts  are  run  off  the 
main  drift  at  twenty-five  feet  intervals.  Raises  are  put 
up  from  these  crosscuts  so  that  the  raises  are  space'd 
about  twenty-five  feet  center  to  center  each  way.  These 
raises  extend  only  to  the  first  sub.  Ordinary  round 
timber  chutes  are  used  in  these  raises,  with  three  inch 
round  birch  stoppers.  A  large  amount  of  blasting  is 
necessary  in  the  chutes  at  times  on  account  of  the 
benches  coming  down  in  large  pieces,  but  otherwise  no 
trouble  is  experienced  in  loading  cars.  All  tramming 
is  done  by  hand,  two-ton  cars  being  used  on  a  grade 
of  one  per  cent,  in  favor  of  the  loads.  They  have  done 
away  with  cross  switches  for  spotting  cars  at  the  shaft. 
In  place  of  them  they  use  a  truck  running  on  rails  in  a 
shallow  pit  transversely  across  the  station  arid  about 
twelve  feet  back  from  it.  Cars  can  be  run  onto  this  track 
from  any  track  and  spotted  for  either  skip  track  or  the 
cage  track  as  may  be  required.  All  out-bound  loaded 


240  THE  IKON  HUNTER 

cars  come  up  the  main  crosscut  on  the  one  track.  The 
lead  for  No.  1  skip  lies  with  this  main  line.  Cars  to 
dump  in  No.  1  skip  come  up  the  main,  cross  the  mack- 
inaw  onto  this  lead  and  dump  directly  in  the  skip. 
Returning  they  are  backed  onto  the  mackinaw,  which  is 
then  spotted  for  the  return  track,  through  a  spring 
switch  out  onto  the  main  line  and  back  in  again  for 
loading.  This  spring  switch  is  the  only  real  switch  on 
the  level. 

Under  ordinary  conditions,  trammers  dump  their 
own  cars,  but  when  for  any  reason  it  is  necessary  to 
speed  up  the  hoisting,  a  gang  of  dumpers  (two  men), 
are  put  on  at  the  shaft.  Trammers  coming  out  leave 
their  cars  on  the  main  line  and  go  back  with  an 
empty  from  the  return  track.  The  gang  at  the  shaft 
handles  cars  on  the  mackinaw,  dumps  them  and  shoves 
them  down  the  return  track.  Working  in  this  way, 
four  hundred  to  four  hundred  and  fifty  skips  can  easily 
be  sent  up  in  a  shaft. 

The  siderite,  as  a  whole,  in  the  Magpie  ore  body  is 
the  usual  light  colored  ore  with  a  slightly  pink  tinge 
due  to  the  manganese  carbonate  rhodochrosite,  but  on 
either  side  of  the  diabase  dyke,  cutting  the  body,  the 
siderite  is  changed  to  a  dense  black  ore  much  re- 
sembling fine  grained  magnetite.  In  the  white  siderite, 
the  volatile  runs  about  thirty-two  per  cent.,  but  this 
volatile  gradually  decreases  near  the  dyke  until  it  is  as 
low  as  twelve  per  cent.  The  carbonate  here  contains 
considerable  magnetite  and  the  iron  content  of  the  ore  is 
higher  than  in  the  light  colored  ore.  The  black  ore  is 
exceptionally  hard,  so  hard  in  fact  that  a  three  and  one- 
fourth-inch  piston  drill  will  drill  only  from  five  to  six 
feet  of  hole  per  shift.  The  character  of  the  ore  changes 
gradually  as  the  distance  from  the  dyke  increases,  so 


CONCENTRATION  OF  LEAN  ORES     241 

that  at  about  one  hundred  feet  from  the  dyke  the  siderite 
is  all  white. 

The  ore  is  hoisted  with  two  balanced  Kimberly  skips, 
which  have  a  capacity  of  two  tons  each,  and  dump 
directly  into  the  crusher.  The  hoist  consists  of  a  six 
foot  drum,  coned  at  each  end  and  geared  to  150  H.P. 
wound  motor,  three  phase,  induction  motor.  This 
motor  is  remotely  controlled  and  automatically  protected 
against  overloading.  It  is  only,  of  course,  when  hoist- 
ing from  the  bottom  level  that  the  cone  on  the  drum  is 
of  any  use,  but  the  motor  has  no  difficulty  in  starting  a 
loaded  skip  from  any  of  the  intermediate  levels,  even 
though  no  chair  is  used  and  the  full  load  is  hanging 
on  the  rope  at  the  start.  The  full  load  speed  of  the 
motor  gives  a  rope  speed  of  seven  hundred  fifty  feet  per 
minute. 

The  signal  to  hoist  the  skip  is  given  to  the  hoistman 
by  a  bell  which  can  be  rung  from  one  level  —  namely 
the  one  from  which  the  most  tramming  is  being  done  at 
that  time.  A  skip-tender  is  stationed  there  and  the 
other  levels  ring  to  him  when  they  want  the  skip,  or 
when  they  have  finished  dumping  their  car,  and  he  re- 
lays the  signal  to  the  hoist  man. 

The  crusherman  feeding  the  No.  8  crusher  also  has 
a  switch  by  which  he  can  ring  the  hoistman  in  case 
trouble  with  the  crusher  occurs  and  he  wants  to  stop  the 
skip  before  it  dumps.  This  switch  also  gives  the  same 
signal  to  the  skip  tender,  so  that  he  knows  that  the  skip 
has  been  stopped  at  the  crusher.  This  stopping  for  a 
minute  or  two  is  fairly  frequent,  as  a  big  chunk  of  ore 
often  has  to  be  broken  with  a  hammer  before  it  will  go 
into  the  crusher. 

The  skips  dump  into  a  No.  8  gyratory  crusher,  which 
breaks  the  ore  to  about  six-inch  rinse.  The  black  ore 


242  THE  IKON  HUNTER 

from  near  the  diabase  dyke  is  exceptionally  hard,  so 
hard  that  in  fact  the  cast  iron  spider,  which  is  prac- 
tically always  supplied  with  these  machines,  was  not 
strong  enough  to  withstand  the  strain  and  had  to  be  re- 
placed by  a  cast  steel  one.  Below  the  No.  8  crusher, 
the  ore  passes  over  a  set  of  grizzly  bars  and  then  to  two 
No.  5  gyratory  crushers.  These  are  set  to  about  three 
inch,  and  from  these  the  ore  is  carried  on  a  twenty-four 
inch  conveyor  belt  to  the  storage  bins  in  the  roast  plant. 

The  roasting  kilns  are  eight  feet  by  one  hundred 
twenty-five  feet  long  and  lined  with  nine-inch  hard  fire 
brick.  The  fuel  used  is  powdered  slack  coal  which 
gives  a  temperature  of  about  1100  degrees  Centigrade 
for  about  twenty  feet  in  the  kiln.  This  is  not  hot 
enough  to  make  the  ore  sticky  and  is  sufficient  to  drive 
off  the  C02  and  nearly  eliminate  the  sulphur. 

After  passing  through  the  roasting  kilns,  both  the 
light  and  dark  colored  ores  have  the  same  appearance 
and  are  not  distinguishable  in  any  way.  The  finished 
ore  is  nearly  black  in  color,  and  comes  out  of  the  kilns 
in  a  very  porous  condition,  in  rounded  lumps  about  two 
inches  in  diameter,  the  large  pieces  breaking  up  when 
passing  through  the  kiln.  This  finished  product  has 
the  following  composition  and  is  admirably  suited  for 
the  blast  furnace  both  on  account  of  its  physical  condi- 
tion and  its  chemical  composition: 

Fe 50.00 

Phos 013 

Silica  9.60 

Manganese    2.75 

Alumina    1-24 

Lime    7.69 

Magnesia    7.75 

Sulphur 196 

Loss  on  Ign 000 


CONCENTRATION  OF  LEAN  ORES     243 

So  here  an  elaborate  and  relatively  costly  mining  and 
roasting  system  enriches  from  thirty  to  fifty  per  cent, 
an  ore  never  before  used  in  America,  and  it  is  done 
profitably.  I  have  gone  into  rather  technical  details 
because  the  entire  operation  is  a  unique  innovation  in 
America.  It  will  be  at  once  concluded  that  American 
ore  reserves  will  be  sufficient  for  many  centuries.  In- 
asmuch as  the  late  James  J.  Hill  predicted  exhaustion 
in  a  couple  of  decades,  this  furnishes  a  satisfying  con- 
trast. America  manufactures  nearly  three  quarters  of 
the  steel  and  iron  used  by  the  world.  That  this  will 
continue  almost  without  limit  as  to  time  and  always 
disproportionately  increasing  in  favor  of  this  country 
does  not  admit  of  reasonable  doubt. 


CHAPTEE  XXVIII 

ACCIDENTAL    FORTUNES    FROM    IRON    ORE 

THE  tale  of  how  fortunes  were  made  by  many  men 
in  the  Lake  Superior  iron  ore  ranges  is  a  story 
of  fortuitous  happenings.  An  iron  ore  forma- 
tion surrounds  Lake  Superior  north  and  south.  The 
first  discoveries  were  made  in  Michigan.  Later  the 
Mesaba  and  other  ranges  opened  in  Minnesota  placed 
that  State  in  the  leading  place  in  iron  ore  production 
in  the  world.  Almost  without  exception  the  iron  dis- 
tricts were  in  regions  covered  by  great  forests  of  virgin 
white  pine  —  pinus  strobus.  These  trees  in  instances 
grew  to  great  proportions.  Some  of  them  measured 
more  than  six  feet  in  diameter  at  the  base.  So  light 
and  perfect  in  texture  were  these  big  trees  that  they 
were  called  cork  pine.  Driving  streams  threaded  the 
pineries  on  their  way  to  the  Great  Lakes.  These  sup- 
plied transportation  to  navigable  waters  for  the  logs. 
Naturally  these  forests  early  attracted  the  attention  of 
lumbermen.  When  the  pineries  in  Maine  began  to  be 
exhausted,  hardy  Yankees  of  character  and  courage 
from  the  Androscoggin  came  to  Michigan  after  their 
idea  of  a  golden  fleece.  They  "  took  up  "  vast  tracts 
of  land  from  the  Government  along  the  Saginaw,  the 
Tittabawassee,  the  Shiawassee  and  other  Lower  Penin- 
sula rivers.  Most  always  these  lands  were  "  entered  " 
at  a  dollar  and  a  quarter  an  acre.  Bolder  spirits  forged 
to  the  northward  into  the  valleys  of  the  Tahquamenon 

244 


ACCIDENTAL  FORTUNES  245 

and  the  Menominee,  and  on  westward  to  the  Wisconsin 
River  country  and  then  into  Minnesota.  When  the  tim- 
ber came  into  the  market  it  was  logged,  floated  down 
stream  to  sawmills  and  cut  into  lumber.  Only  the  very 
choicest,  and  that  nearest  streams  making  a  short  haul, 
was  cut  at  first.  Piles  of  skidded  logs  were  left  in  the 
woods  amidst  the  resinous  tops  and  limbs.  Fire  would 
get  into  the  waste  jungles  and  cause  direful  loss  of  life 
as  well  as  of  property.  Hundreds  of  lumber  towns 
have  been  wiped  out  and  thousands  of  lives  sacrificed 
on  the  pyres  of  carelessness.  Even  to  this  day  death- 
breeding  forest  fires  occur  in  Michigan,  Wisconsin  and 
Minnesota.  Just  as  soon  as  the  pine  was  cut  off,  the 
lumbermen  would  let  the  scarfed  lands  "  go  back  "  for 
taxes,  recognizing  no  other  values.  Some  of  these  lands 
are  now  most  fertile  farms.  On  others  iron  ore  was 
found.  When  the  land  was  originally  purchased  the 
buyer  had  nothing  in  view  but  the  timber.  If  iron  ore 
was  known  to  exist  in  a  certain  region,  some  wiser  land 
owners  would  hold  on  to  their  possessions  and  pay  the 
low  taxes.  Others  would  not.  Almost  never  did  they 
do  anything  to  develop  the  lands.  Prospectors  would 
come  along  and  ask  for  an  option  to  explore  on  a  lease 
and  royalty  basis.  They  would  develop  a  mine  and  the 
land  owner  would  have  a  fortune  he  had  not  turned  his 
hand  over  to  earn.  In  many  cases  before  or  after  the 
timber  was  cut  the  owners  of  land  when  making  trans- 
fers would  "  reserve  "  the  mineral  rights  on  a  gamble. 
These  reservations  have  never  been  taxed  and  are  still 
permitted  to  be  made  according  to  law.  Not  infre- 
quently the  original  owners  would  have  died  and  their 
heirs  would  be  surprised  to  have  a  request  come  to  them 
for  an  option  to  explore  on  lands  now  owned  by  others 
and  to  which  they  had  no  idea  they  had  any  claim.  The 


246  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

lap  gods  just  dug  into  the  earth  for  them  and  filled  their 
pockets  with  dollars.  A  great  many  rich  iron  mines 
in  Michigan  and  Minnesota  are  on  lands  once  purchased 
from  the  Government  for  pine  timber.  Perhaps  the 
Wellington  Burt  fortune,  of  Saginaw,  is  a  typical  in- 
stance of  how  the  economic  symplegides  opened  to 
people  who  were  blind  so  far  as  iron  ore  was  concerned. 
There  are  dozens  of  other  cases  just  like  the  Burt  one, 
and  some  of  them  have  an  annual  income  amounting  to 
upwards  of  a  million  dollars  from  accidental  royalties. 
Government  land  grants,  honest  and  dishonest, 
earned  and  unearned,  conveyed  billions  of  dollars  worth 
of  iron  ore  from  the  public  to  private  owners.  Notable 
examples  are  the  Lake  Superior  Ship  Canal  Railway 
and  Iron  Company,  the  Great  Northern  Grant,  and 
there  were  many  more.  Perhaps  the  accumulation  of 
the  pyramidal  Longyear  fortune  is  as  legitimate  a  case 
as  any.  John  M.  Longyear  was  a  bright,  rather  physi- 
cally weak  young  man  of  alert  vision  and  fine  character. 
He  was  sent  to  Marquette,  on  Lake  Superior,  as  the 
agent  of  the  Lake  Superior  Ship  Canal  Railway  and 
Iron  Company.  This  company  in  selecting  the  lands 
allotted  in  its  grant  engaged  the  services  of  the  three 
Brotherton  "  boys  "  of  Escanaba.  They  were  the  very 
best  land  lookers  and  iron  hunters  in  all  the  Lake  Su- 
perior region.  Upon  their  reports  all  the  Canal  Com- 
pany's lands  were  chosen.  These  had  to  be  alternate 
sections.  Mr.  Longyear  had  all  the  information  sup- 
plied by  the  data  gathered  by  the  Brothertons.  He  se- 
cured financial  backers  and  bought  the  lands  lying  be- 
tween the  Canal  Company's  property.  It  just  so  hap- 
pened that  most  of  the  mines  found  turned  out  to  be 
on  the  Longyear  lands.  The  fortune  that  was  won  in 
this  way  runs  into  the  multiplied  millions. 


ACCIDENTAL  FORTUNES  247 

The  story  of  the  big  Chapin  mine  on  the  Menominee 
Range  presents  facets  of  exquisite  humor  and  at  the 
same  time  illustrates  how  little  significance  was  at- 
tached by  owners  to  early  land  holdings.  The  Chapins 
lived  at  Niles,  Michigan.  They  entered  the  Chapin 
Mine  forty  at  a  dollar  and  a  quarter  an  acre,  equaling 
fifty  dollars.  A  wedding  occurred  in  the  family.  To 
the  officiating  preacher  was  given  a  deed  for  the  forty 
acres  in  question.  The  guileless  dominie  did  not  even 
record  the  deed  and  paid  no  attention  to  it  whatever. 
A  few  years  later  the  big  mine  was  found.  It  has  pro- 
duced ore  worth  more  than  twenty  million  dollars  and 
still  has  rich  reserves.  A  wide-awake  young  lawyer 
heard  of  the  preacher  and  investigated  the  story.  He 
had  a  hard  time  finding  the  minister,  but  finally  trailed 
him  to  the  Pacific  Coast  in  an  obscure  little  town. 
Suit  against  the  Chapins  was  begun.  After  hanging 
fire  in  the  courts  for  a  more  or  less  tedious  time,  a 
compromise  was  made  with  the  preacher  for  a  cash  con- 
sideration of  two  hundred  thousand  dollars.  This  was 
divided  evenly  with  the  lawyer  and  the  Chapin  mine 
lawsuit  was  heard  of  no  more. 

Just  a  little  time  ago  a  title  to  a  valuable  mine  was 
traced  to  a  Russian  servant  maid  who  had  returned  to 
Warsaw.  The  able  young  lawyer  who  ferreted  it  out 
was  sent  to  Europe  by  a  big  mining  company.  He 
found  the  girl,  with  the  assistance  of  a  kindly  priest, 
paid  her  well,  got  her  relinquishment  and  came  home. 
The  company  gave  the  lawyer  a  check  for  twenty-five 
thousand  dollars,  paid  all  of  his  expenses  and  gave  him 
a  high  place  in  their  law  department.  This  recital  re- 
fers to  Raymond  Empson,  attorney,  of  Gladstone,  Michi- 
gan, and  to  the  Cleveland-Cliffs  Iron  Company,  of  which 
William  G.  Mather,  of  Cleveland,  Ohio,  is  president. 


248  THE  IKON  HUNTEK 

In  all  of  the  dealings  there  was  only  one  desire  upper- 
most in  the  mind  of  Mr.  Mather  and  his  managing 
vice-president,  M.  M.  Duncan,  and  that  was  to  give  the 
poor  girl  her  just  consideration  and  to  treat  the  young 
lawyer  fairly.  This  is  coming  to  be  the  policy  of 
modern  business  and  it  will  go  a  long  way  to  retard 
bolshevism.  I  could  go  on  almost  endlessly  writing  of 
the  romances  of  iron  ore.  Stewart  Edward  White 
charmingly  tells  the  story  of  white  pine  in  his  popular 
"  Blazed  Trail."  There  are  a  thousand  blazed  trails 
in  the  adventures  of  the  iron  ore  hunters. 


CHAPTEK  XXIX 


DISTRICT  THE  WORLD  HAS  EVER  KNOWN 

VERY   early    in   its    development    I    visited    the 
Mesaba  range  many  times. 
At  the  commencement  of  every  epoch  of  great 
importance,  or  rather  while  the  parts  are  being  mar- 
shalled for  the  making  of  history,  many  of  the  more 
minute  things  are  lost  sight  of,  and  thus  the  era  starts 
blunted  and  its  history  is  incomplete.     So  it  is  with  the 
discovery  of  iron  ore  in  Minnesota,  and  more  particu- 
larly that  portion  known  as  the  Mesaba  range,  the  most 
productive  iron  ore  region  ever  known  in  the  world. 

The  original  discoverers  of  iron  ore  in  Minnesota  are 
unknown.  The  Sioux  Indians  knew  about  the  ore  ma- 
terial and  associated  rocks  but  did  not  know  what  they 
were  or  how  to  use  the  raw  material.  In  this  they  were 
more  backward  than  African  aborigines.  In  the  writ- 
ten relations  of  .the  Jesuit  Fathers,  who  were  the  first 
missionaries  to  these  red  men,  allusion  is  made  as  early 
as  1660  to  the  existence  of  economic  minerals  in  the 
Lake  Superior  country.  Writings  by  LaGard  in  1636, 
by  Pierre  Boucher  in  1640,  Fathers  Raymbault  and 
Jogues  in  1641  and  Claude  Allouez  in  1666,  tell  of  the 
finding  of  considerable  quantities  of  iron  ore  in  the 
several  localities  that  are  now  defined  as  the  mineral 
ranges  of  the  Lake  Superior  basin.  In  1668  Father 
Jacques  Marquette  traversed  the  northern  wilderness 

249 


250  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

and  paid  particular  attention  to  its  economic  geology. 
To  the  unremitting  interest  of  this  venerable  priest,  the 
Lake  Superior  country  owes  the  deht  due  for  its  primal 
and  practical  discovery. 

The  first  references  to  the  Mesaba  district  found  in 
literature  concern  the  parts  of  the  district  immediately 
adjacent  to  the  canoe  routes  offered  by  the  rivers  Mis- 
sissippi, Prairie,  Swan,  St.  Louis,  Pike  and  smaller 
streams.  The  first  official  description  was  given  by 
Major  Z.  M.  Pike  in  1810,  and  the  veteran  explorer, 
Henry  E.  Schoolcraft  was  there  in  1832.  In  1841  J. 
~N.  JSTicollet  published  a  map  of  the  hydrographic  basin 
of  the  upper  Mississippi,  on  which  the  Mesaba  range, 
called  "  Missabay  Heights,"  was  for  the  first  time  de- 
lineated, by  hachures,  although  very  imperfectly.  In 
1866  Colonel  Charles  Whittlesey  reported  on  explora- 
tions made  in  northern  Minnesota  during  the  years 
1848,  1849  and  1864,  mentioning  Pokegama  Falls,  near 
Grand  Rapids.  Mesaba,  which  is  spelled  in  half  a 
dozen  different  ways,  to  suit  the  fancy  of  the  speller,  is 
the  Chippewa  word  for  giant,  and  the  name  was  given 
the  granite  range  of  hills  to  the  north  of  Hibbing.  The 
early  explorers  used  the  word  Mesaba  to  cover  the  ter- 
ritory now  embraced  in  the  regions  known  as  the  Mesaba 
and  Vermillion  ranges.  In  1868,  Henry  H.  Eames,  the 
first  state  geologist  of  Minnesota,  reported  the  finding 
of  iron  ore  at  Embarrass  Lake  near  Biwabik.  In  a  sec- 
ond report,  published  in  the  same  year,  Mr.  Eames  was 
more  explicit,  and  referring  to  the  general  elevated  area 
of  the  northern  part  of  the  State  including  the  Mesaba 
Range,  said: 

"  In  this  region  are  found  also  immense  bodies  of  the 
ores  of  iron,  both  magnetic  and  hematite."  From  this 
time  on  desultory  exploratory  work  was  done  along 


MESABA  RANGE  IN  MINNESOTA     251 

nearly  the  entire  length  of  the  range  from  Kanges  12  to 
LaPrairie  River.  There  is  considerable  doubt  as  to 
who  was  the  first  actual  explorer  to  penetrate  the  wilds 
of  the  Mesaba  Range,  but  from  all  that  can  be  gathered 
it  would  seem  that  the  honor  belongs  to  Peter  Mitchell. 
The  first  examination  of  this  range  by  a  mining  expert 
with  particular  reference  to  the  occurrence  of  iron  ore 
in  merchantable  deposits  was  made  in  1875  by  Pro- 
fessor A.  H.  Chester,  of  Hamilton  College,  New  York. 
In  this  report,  published  in  1884,  may  be  found  this  ref- 
erence to  an  earlier  occupation  of  the  land : 

"  In  the  northwest  quarter  of  section  20,  in  township  60, 
north  of  range  12,  west,  the  most  important  of  the  work- 
ings of  Mr.  Peter  Mitchell,  the  first  explorer  of  the  range, 
was  found.  This  was  a  pit  six  feet  in  depth,  and  from  it 
was  said  to  have  been  obtained  the  best  ore  he  brought  back. 
This  old  pit  was  cleaned  and  sunk  to  a  depth  of  eleven  and 
two-tenths  feet." 

Professor  Chester  is  generally  given  the  credit  of  hav- 
ing been  the  first  explorer  on  the  range,  but  we  have  his 
own  words  that  Mr.  Mitchell  was  ahead  of  him,  possi- 
bly two  or  three  years.  Between  the  time  of  Professor 
Chester's  examination  of  the  range  and  the  publication 
of  his  report  nine  years  later,  Professor  M.  H.  Win- 
chell,  state  geologist,  noted  the  range  in  two  of  his  re- 
ports, mentioning  the  existence  of  iron  ore  on  the  east 
end.  Up  to  that  time,  while  it  was  readily  conceded 
that  iron  ore  existed  there,  it  was  not  generally  believed 
that  the  ore  was  of  a  merchantable  grade  or  in  sufficient 
quantity  to  warrant  development.  In  fact,  well  up  to 
1890  the  range  had  been  looked  over  by  numerous  min- 
ing experts  sent  in  there  by  the  larger  interests,  and 
the  reports  were  not  favorable.  The  portion  of  the 


252  THE  IEON  HUNTEE 

range  examined  particularly  by  them  was  the  extreme 
eastern  end,  where  exposures  of  magnetic  iron  are  nu- 
merous, but  even  up  to  the  present  time  no  body  of  ore 
of  workable  dimensions  has  been  located  at  that  point. 
The  fact  that  the  range  had  been  turned  down  by  the 
several  mining  experts  did  not  deter  the  hardy  pioneer 
explorers,  to  whose  faith  and  purpose  are  due  the  de- 
velopment of  the  Mesaba.  They  believed  that  rich  iron 
ore  in  paying  quantities  was  to  be  found  in  the  district 
and  they  continued  working  diligently,  breasting  the 
untold  hardships  that  meet  the  pioneer  in  a  wild  coun- 
try. The  more  persistent  of  the  early  explorers  were 
the  Merritts  —  Lon  Merritt,  Alfred  Merritt,  L.  J.  Mer- 
ritt,  C.  C.  Merritt,  T.  N.  Merritt,  A.  E.  Merritt,  J.  E. 
Merritt,  and  W.  J.  Merritt  —  of  Duluth,  and  their  faith 
in  the  range  was  the  first  to  be  rewarded.  On  Novem- 
ber 16,  1890,  a  crew  working  for  them,  under  charge  of 
Captain  J.  A.  Nichols,  struck  iron  ore  in  a  homestead 
claim  embracing  the  northwest  quarter  of  section  3,  58- 
18,  just  north  of  what  is  now  known  as  the  Mountain 
Iron  mine.  The  Merritts.  were  not  discouraged  by  the 
adverse  reports  made  by  the  experts  and  the  numerous 
failures  of  other  explorers.  The  Mesaba  was  an  at- 
tractive and  promising  field,  and  their  faith  in  it  was 
never  shaken,  even  though  their  money  was  spent  and 
two  years  of  the  hardest  kind  of  labor  remained  unre- 
warded. All  who  applaud  the  pioneer  are  glad  to  know 
that  these  pioneers  who  were  so  unresting  in  their  search 
for  iron  ore  have  been  richly  repaid  and  that  those  who 
remain  of  the  family  are  enjoying  lives  of  ease  due  to 
the  early  toil  that  tried  their  fiber. 

The  next  discovery  of  importance  on  the  range  was 
the  Biwabik  property,  by  John  McCaskill,  an  explorer, 
who  found  iron  ore  clinging  to  the  roots  of  an  upturned 


MESABA  RANGE  IN  MINNESOTA     253 

tree.  The  Merritts  explored  the  tract.  It  is  interest- 
ing to  note  that  the  first  two  iron  mines  discovered  have 
proven  the  largest  shippers  from  the  range.  The  output 
of  the  Biwabik  mine  up  to  the  close  of  navigation  in 
1917  was  4,05 3', 731  tons,  while  the  Mountain  Iron  mine 
had  made  in  the  same  period  the  stupendous  production 
of  7,254,201  tons.  With  the  discovery  of  these  mines 
it  may  be  said  that  the  range  was  fairly  recognized  as  a 
mining  district  of  commercial  importance,  and  there 
followed  a  rush  of  explorers  to  the  scene  of  action. 
Finds  of  large  bodies  of  ore  followed,  and  mining  towns 
sprung  up  all  along  to  give  attention  to  the  needs  of  the 
throngs  of  people  that  flocked  in. 

It  is  generally  believed  that  Frank  Hibbing,  of 
Duluth,  was  the  first  explorer  to  shoulder  his  packsack 
and  push  his  way  through  the  trackless  wilderness  to 
the  point  where  now  stands  the  modern  city  of  Hib- 
bing—  called  the  "Gem  of  the  Mesaba,"  but  E.  J. 
Longyear  preceded  Hibbing  to  the  territory  by  at  least 
a  year.  Mr.  Longyear  cut  a  road  into  what  is  now  the 
Hibbing  district  and  it  was  he  who  broke  the  seal  that 
bound  the  hidden  wealth  that  has  been  brought  to  light 
since  that  time.  Frank  Hibbing  was  really  more  of  a 
prospector  than  Longyear.  He  located  a  number  of 
promising  prospects  and  acquired  interests  in  lands 
along  the  range.  Mr.  Hibbing  was  a  man  without 
means,  but  so  encouraging  were  his  reports  that  he  soon 
interested  A.  J.  Trimble,  then  fresh  from  many  suc- 
cessful ventures  on  the  Gogebic  range,  in  Michigan, 
with  him,  and  the  Lake  Superior  Iron  Company  was 
formed.  John  M.  Longyear,  of  Marquette,  and  R.  M. 
Bennett,  of  Minneapolis,  secured  options  to  explore 
Mesaba  Range  lands  and  sent  E.  J.  Longyear  with  an 
exploration  outfit  to  give  the  lands  a  test.  Mr.  Long- 


254  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

year  was  then  fresh  from  the  Michigan  College  of  Mines, 
and  was  one  of  the  first  class  that  graduated  from  that 
splendid  institution.  In  the  summer  of  1891  Mr.  Long- 
year  arrived  at  Swan  River,  on  the  line  of  the  old  Du- 
luth  and  Winnipeg  Railroad,  now  the  Great  Northern, 
which  was  the  nearest  railroad  point  to  the  land  he  in- 
tended to  explore.  He  followed  the  old  Wright  and 
Davis  tote  road  to  a  point  about  a  mile  and  one  quarter 
west  of  what  is  now  Nashwauk,  and  from  there  began 
cutting  a  road  through  to  what  is  now  Hibbing.  Having 
made  a  passable  road,  Mr.  Longyear  established  an  ex- 
ploring camp  one-half  a  mile  north  of  the  present  Ma- 
honing  mine,  and  the  old  camps  are  still  there,  a  mute 
reminder  of  the  earliest  work  on  that  end  of  the  range. 
Mr.  Longyear  prosecuted  exploratory  work  with  a  dia- 
mond drill  without  finding  ore  in  paying  quantities  until 
February,  1892,  when  he  found  a  large  body  of  ore  in  the 
northeast  quarter  of  section  22,  58-20.  The  body  of 
ore,  said  to  measure  eight  million  tons,  remains  unde- 
veloped. A  few  years  ago  it  became  the  property  of  the 
old  Lake  Superior  Consolidated  Iron  Mines  Company 
and  was  taken  into  the  holdings  of  the  United  States 
Steel  Corporation  upon  its  organization.  Mr.  Long- 
year's  next  find  was  the  Pillsbury  mine.  This  was  the 
first  iron  mine  opened  in  the  Hibbing  district,  though  it 
did  not  make  a  shipment  until  1898.  The  first  mine  to 
ship  ore  from  the  district  was  the  Sellers,  in  the  spring 
of  1894.  The  next  mine  to  be  opened  in  the  district 
was  the  Burt,  followed  closely  by  the  Hull,  Rust,  Sellers 
and  Day  mines,  in  which  Hibbing  and  Trimble  were  in- 
terested, and  then  the  great  Mahoning. 

The  finding  of  the  great  Mesaba  beds  of  iron  ore 
opened  the  eyes  of  the  eastern  furnace  men,  and  they 
met  and  formed  an  organization  to  locate  iron  proper- 


MESABA  KANGE  IN  MINNESOTA     255 

ties  on  this  range.  W.  C.  Agnew  was  chosen  as  the 
most  suitable  man  to  conduct  the  work.  Mr.  Agnew 
accepted  the  proposition  and  arrived  with  a  working 
crew  in  the  summer  of  1893.  He  started  exploratory 
work  on  lands  where  the  Mahoning  mine  was  found,  one 
mile  west  of  Hibbing.  Mr.  Agnew  discovered  this  mine 
and  superintended  its  development.  The  Mahoning 
presents  the  largest  single  body  of  iron  ore  ever  discov- 
ered in  the  world.  Imagine  an  elliptical  opening  in  the 
earth  half  a  mile  long,  a  quarter  of  a  mile  wide  and 
nearly  two  hundred  feet  deep,  and  you  will  have  some 
idea  of  what  the  great  Mahoning  open  pit  presents  to- 
day —  more  than  forty  acres  of  solid  iron  ore  exposed  to 
view.  There  yet  remains  eighty  acres  of  ore  uncovered. 
The  first  shipment  from  the  Mahoning  was  made  in 
1895,  and  up  to  the  close  of  navigation,  1917,  the  total 
output  was  4,791,651.  The  possible  year's  shipment 
out  of  this  mine  is  to  be  limited  only  by  the  capacity 
of  the  railroads  for  carrying  away  the  product. 

After  the  first  excitement  of  mine  discovering  sub- 
sided somewhat,  a  financial  depression  occurred  and  ex- 
ploratory work  nearly  ceased  until  better  times  re- 
curred. But  at  no  time  was  the  range  and  its  immense 
possibilities  lost  sight  of  by  the  financial  interests  of 
the  country.  In  1900  there  was  a  revival  of  exploratory 
work,  and  from  that  time  on  there  has  been  a  steady 
increase  in  ore  development  and  the  end  is  not  in  sight. 
After  the  organization  of  the  United  States  Steel  Cor- 
poration, there  was  a  rush  of  independent  mining  men 
to  the  Mesaba  to  secure  holdings  before  everything  fell 
under  the  control  of  the  big  organization.  The  result  is 
that  while  the  Minnesota  Iron  Company,  a  subsidiary 
branch  of  the  Steel  Trust,  owns  heavily  of  the  iron  prop- 
erties, the  tonnage  of  independent  concerns  holding  in- 


256  THE  IKON  HUNTEK 

terests  in  that  district  is  probably  greater  than  that  of 
the  trust.  The  independent  mines  include  among  others 
the  Stevenson  and  Jordan,  owned  and  operated  by  Cor- 
rigan,  McKinney  &  Company ;  the  Laura  and  the  Wini- 
fred, by  the  Winifred  Iron  Mining  Company;  the 
Albany,  Utica  and  Elizabeth,  by  the  Crete  Mining 
Company;  the  Longyear,  Columbia,  Leetonia,  Pearce, 
Morrow  and  Croxton,  by  the  Sellwood-Drake-Bartow  in- 
terests; and  the  Agnew,  Shenango,  Kinney,  Sharon, 
Grant,  Leonard  and  Susquehanna  mines,  all  in  opera- 
tion. So  it  will  be  seen  that  the  Steel  Trust  has  very 
healthy  competition. 

Up  to  the  close  of  navigation  1918,  to  which  period 
production  is  usually  tabulated,  because  almost  all  of 
the  ore  is  shipped  by  way  of  Lake  Superior,  the  Mesaba 
Kange  had  sent  forward  a  total  of  486,319,826  tons. 

The  production  of  all  the  Lake  Superior  districts  in 
1918  was  63,164,341  tons,  of  which  43,359,107  tons 
came  from  the  Mesaba  and  other  Minnesota  ranges. 

It  is  estimated  that  by  the  end  of  the  season  of  1920 
the  first  billion  tons  of  iron  ore  will  have  been  produced 
by  the  Lake  Superior  district. 


CHAPTER  XXX 

CONSIDERATION  OF  CHARLES  EVANS  HUGHES,  WOODBOW 
WILSON  AND  OTHERS  IN  SEARCHING  FOB  A  SUC- 
CESSOR TO  JAMES  B.  ANGELL  AT  THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  MICHIGAN 

PUBLIC  work  came  unexpectedly  for  me  to  do, 
just  as  it  will  come  to  all  who  will  try  to  fit 
themselves  and  be  willing.  In  1908  I  was 
tendered  by  Governor  Warner  an  appointment  upon  the 
Board  of  Regents  of  the  University  of  Michigan,  to  suc- 
ceed the  late  Peter  White,  of  Marquette.  Really  to  de- 
serve to  be  a  regent  of  the  university  and  to  do  the  work 
measurably  well  is,  to  my  way  of  thinking,  the  greatest 
honor  to  be  had  in  Michigan. 

Any  old  dub  may  be  a  governor  or  a  United  States 
senator,  and  several  have  been,  but  generally  the  regents 
have  been  high  grade,  well-equipped  men.  Almost  al- 
ways they  have  been  chosen  from  the  alumni  of  the 
university. 

Consequently  I  assumed  my  new  duties  with  proper 
humility  and  not  without  misgivings.  Where  I  lived 
as  a  boy  in  Indiana,  such  is  the  prestige  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Michigan,  that  a  house  where  dwelt  a  man 
who  had  graduated  at  Ann  Arbor  was  pointed  out  to  all 
as  a  famous  landmark.  With  such  a  man  for  president 
as  the  late  James  Burrill  Angell,  there  was  not  much 
for  a  board  to  do  but  back  him  up.  But  he  was  grow- 

257 


258  THE  IKON  HUNTEK 

ing  old  and  wished  to  retire  and  was  entitled  to  consid- 
eration. 

To  find  a  successor  to  this  wonderful  man  was  to  be  a 
task  that  devolved  upon  the  regents.  Dr.  Angell  was 
the  most  constructively  aggressive  man  in  his  inimitable 
way  that  I  have*  ever  known,  and  yet  to  all  he  was  one, 
of  the  sweetest  and  most  peaceful  of  human  beings. 
He  had  a  way  of  having  others  do  the  fighting.  A  wiz- 
ard could  not  have  measured  men  better.  This  one  was 
selected  for  the  very  thing  he  could  do  best  and  that  one 
for  the  same  reason.  When  he  had  made  his  assign- 
ments, he  would  look  on  with  the  face  of  a  calm  god  and 
rarely  did  his  man  fail  him.  Best  of  all,  the  person 
selected  for  an  especial  work  seldom  realized  it ;  almost 
always  he  would  think  that  he  had  originated  the  matter 
in  hand.  Dr.  Angell  never  took  off  for  a  moment  his 
armor  of  benignity,  but  behind  it  always  there  was  the 
force  of  a  big  man.  It  was  because  of  his  remarkable 
method  of  using  men  and  delegating  work,  that  he  was 
able  to  remain  efficient  to  an  age  much  greater  than  most 
men  are  permitted  to  retain  their  faculties,  or  even  life 
itself. 

During  the  winter  after  he  was  eighty-seven  years  old 
he  had  a  severe  sickness,  largely  caused  by  his  insistence 
upon  acknowledging  in  long  hand  hundreds  of  loving 
letters  received  upon  his  birthday.  His  relatives  were 
summoned  and  all  concerned  expected  the  long  call. 
On  the  nights  of  February  29  and  March  1  it  was 
thought  that  he  would  not  see  the  morning. 

I  was  in  the  office  of  University  Secretary  Shirley 
Smith  at  about  half  past  ten  o'clock  the  forenoon  of 
March  2.  A  telephone  call  came  from  Dr.  Angell's 
brother.  Secretary  Smith's  face  was  long  and  mourn- 
ful, then  it  lighted  up  with  both  gladness  and  humor. 


SUCCESSOK  TO  JAMES  B.  ANGELL     259 

Instead  of  the  dreaded  news,  the  brother  asked  the 
secretary  if  Dr.  Peterson,  of -the  medical  college  hospi- 
tal, would  not  loan  a  wheeled  chair  for  the  use  of  Dr. 
Angell.  It  transpired  that  just  when  they  thought  he 
was  nearest  death  he  rallied,  raised  himself  in  bed,  and 
complained  of  being  hungry.  He  was  given  a  break- 
fast of  coffee,  toast,  a  cereal  and  an  egg,  which  he  actu- 
ally enjoyed.  Then  he  insisted  upon  getting  up  into  a 
wheeled  chair.  A  few  weeks  later  he  peacefully  crossed 
the  threshold  of  eternity. 

He  had  nourished  his  vital  forces  all  of  his  life  upon 
kindliness  of  heart,  tranquillity  of  spirit  and  life  in  an 
atmosphere  of  youth.  Once  he  told  me  that  to  live 
long  one  must  be  temperate  and  keep  his  heart  youthful 
and  alert.  No  wonder  he  was  so  much  of  a  factor  in 
causing  the  University  of  Michigan  to  become  one  of  the 
greatest  of  the  higher  educational  institutions  of  the 
world.  He  was  loved  by  everybody  and  most  so  by  the 
students. 

It  was  this  great  man  that  a  worthy  successor  had  to 
be  secured  for.  There  were  many  applicants.  Of 
course,  not  one  of  them  applied  directly,  like  a  hungry 
man  in  search  of  a  job.  Some  of  them  were  just  as 
eager,  no  doubt,  but  all  went  through  the  form  of  being 
proposed  by  their  friends.  Many  of  those  who  were 
urged  in  greatest  volume  were  the  most  unlikely  and 
unfit. 

Serious  consideration  was  given  to  the  name  of  the 
then  Governor  of  New  York,  Charles  Evans  Hughes. 
Mr.  Hughes  had  been  a  member  of  the  Cornell  faculty 
and  was  looked  upon,  not  only  as  a  big  man,  but  as  one 
who  was  also  an  educator.  The  two  qualifications  do 
not  necessarily  dove-tail. 

The  place  of  president  of  the  University  of  Michigan 


260  THE  IKON  HUNTEK 

was  tentatively  offered  to  him  by  a  committee  of  regents 
appointed  for  the  purpose.  Governor  Hughes  com- 
posed the  usual  gracious,  and  often  meaningless,  phrases 
of  regret,  and  gave  as  his  reason  that  he  had  a  life's 
work  of  reform  in  the  political  arena  of  New  York 
State.  Otherwise  he  would  have  been  made  happy  by 
taking  up  the  direction  of  the  parent  of  all  popular  uni- 
versities. 

Within  a  few  weeks  he  permitted  himself  to  be  side- 
tracked, even  shelved,  so  far  as  political  reform  activi- 
ties were  concerned,  by  an  appointment  to  the  United 
States  Supreme  Court.  In  the  light  of  what  he  had 
uttered  in  such  a  Parsifallian  spirit,  I  was  shocked,  and 
in  my  eyes  Mr.  Hughes  has  worn  a  broken  halo  ever 
since. 

Some  one  proposed  the  name  of  David  Jayne  Hill, 
United  States  Ambassador  to  Germany.  He  looked  like 
ideal  timber.  I  went  to  Berlin  to  look  him  over.  It  is 
proper,  I  think,  to  state  that  I  paid  my  own  expenses. 
Accuracy,  at  the  expense  of  elegance,  requires  me  to 
record  that  I  reported  to  the  board  of  regents  that  Mr. 
Hill  had  taken  on  too  much  weight  of  all  kinds. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  candidates,  for  we  were 
caused  to  think,  at  least  I  was,  that  he  solicited  the  posi- 
tion, was  Woodrow  Wilson.  At  the  very  first  most  of 
the  regents  jumped  at  the  shining  lure  of  surface  bril- 
liance. I  do  not  mean  to  state  that  Mr.  Wilson  is  not 
a  profound  scholar;  only  that  more  than  most  men  of 
erudition  he  possesses  an  exterior  luminescence  that  is 
distinctive.  More  sober  consideration  threw  another 
light  upon  the  retiring  president  of  Princeton.  There 
was  a  consensus  of  opinion  that  he  had  done  good  work 
at  Princeton,  but  that  whether  he  had  done  more  good 


SUCCESSOE  TO  JAMES  B.  ANGELL     261 

than  harm  was  a  question  that  could  not  be  so  easily 
answered. 

He  had  gone  to  Princeton  with  the  unanimous  support 
of  the  managers  of  that  college,  and  left  it  with  scarcely 
a  friend  among  them.  Practically,  it  seems,  he  was 
dismissed.  His  gratuitous  quarrel  with  Grover  Cleve- 
land was  analyzed,  and  a  decision  was  come  to  that  Dr. 
Wilson  was  tactless. 

The  University  of  Michigan  depends  for  its  financial 
life  upon  the  people,  and  the  Legislature  of  a  Kepublican 
state.  It  has  always  had  the  respect,  affection  and  gen- 
erous consideration  of  its  State.  How  long  would  it 
take  a  southern  Democrat  of  Mr.  Wilson's  peculiar  type 
to  destroy  the  delicate  relations  that  subsist  between 
them  ?  That  was  the  danger  that  lurked  in  him.  Good 
enough,  the  people  have  said,  to  be  a  two-term  President 
of  the  United  States,  but  the  regents  did  not  decide  that 
he  was  good  enough  to  be  president  of  the  University  of 
Michigan. 

It  was  a  happy  solution  of  the  problem  to  select  Dr. 
Harry  B.  Hutchins,  dean  of  the  University  of  Michigan 
Law  College,  to  be  president.  I  opposed  his  appoint- 
ment for  an  unlimited  term.  In  fact,  I  was  not  very 
enthusiastic  about  Dr.  Hutchins,  and  I  proposed  that 
the  place  be  given  him  for  three  years,  in  order  that  the 
board  might  have  time  to  look  around  without  the  dis- 
agreeable and  hurtful  consequences  of  not  having  a 
president. 

Some  of  the  regents,  who  knew  him  better  than  I  did, 
proposed  that  I  be  appointed  a  committee  of  one  to  in- 
terview Dr.  Hutchins  and  come  to  terms  with  him. 
This  they  did,  with  the  suspicious  twinkle  in  their  eyes 
of  a  ruminating  rhinoceros*  They  expected  fire- 


262  THE  IKON  HUNTER 

works.  If  they  could  have  been  within  hearing  of  the 
session  between  Dr.  Hutchins  and  myself  they  would 
have  considered  themselves  enjoyably  justified.  I 
found  the  Dean  a  much  bigger  and  stronger  man  than 
I  had  supposed  him  to  be.  In  fact,  he  rapidly  devel- 
oped presidential  size,  in  my  estimation,  as  we  sat  vis-a- 
vis and  fought  back  and  forth.  We  shouted  at  each 
other  and  pounded  the  desk  that  was  between  us.  Fi- 
nally I  said  to  him : 

"  For  goodness'  sake,  don't  act  like  you  are  behaving ; 
you  remind  me  too  much  of  myself !  " 

This,  he  has  said  since,  uncovered  his  humorous 
senses,  and  we  soon  had  a  rational  discussion.  At  first 
he  felt  it  as  a  reflection  upon  him  to  be  offered  a  limited 
term.  I  told  him  just  why  we  had  insisted  upon  a 
definite  period  and  I  placed  the  good  of  the  university 
above  everything.  The  people  of  the  nation  only  gave 
their  President  a  limited  term,  and  why  should  he,  in 
the  face  of  such  an  exalted  example,  object  to  being 
placed  upon  the  same  footing?  That  was  not  what 
appealed  to  him.  It  was  the  good  of  the  university 
that  won  his  willingness  to  do  anything  that  would  con- 
tribute to  such  an  object.  I  suggested  increasing  the 
term  to  five  years,  and  we  agreed,  whereupon  the  board 
of  regents  ratified  the  decision,  and  Dr.  Harry  B. 
Hutchins  became  president  of  the  University  of  Michi- 
gan. 

It  is  only  due  him  to  state  that  his  work  as  the  head 
of  the  university  has  more  than  justified  the  expecta- 
tions of  his  chiefest  admirers. 

While  I  was  a  regent,  a  kind  of  thing  came  up  that 
must  arise  continually  in  the  life  of  every  university. 
Professor  R.  M.  Wenley's  philosophical  lectures  had 
taken  such  a  wide  and  free  and  bold  scope,  as  to  attract  a 


SUCCESSOR  TO  JAMES  B.  ANGELL     263 

great  deal  of  attention  which  was  not  confined  to 
university  circles,  but  pervaded  the  State  and  farther. 
He  was  admired  as  a  man  of  profound  thought 
and  high  courage  by  those  who  were  big  enough  and 
sufficiently  fair  to  see  him  as  he  is  and  measure  his 
work. 

Those  who  did  not  like  his  methods,  and  some  of  the 
faculty  who  were  unquestionably  jealous  of  him,  formed 
a  potential  opposition  to  him  that  took  form  in  a  deter- 
mination to  drive  him  out  of  the  university.  One  day 
Wenley  delivered  a  lecture  so  Christless  and  so  heart- 
less and  so  platonic  in  their  estimation  as  to  stir  his 
enemies  to  extreme  action.  They  interviewed  a  regent 
who  came  to  me  with  the  matter.  This  regent  was  one 
of  the  oldest  and  best  men  on  the  board  and  an  alumnus. 
He  was  all  wrought  up  and  managed  to  communicate 
his  feelings  to  me. 

I  agreed  to  support  a  resolution  dismissing  Professor 
Wenley  from  the  faculty.  We  had  votes  enough 
pledged  to  pass  it.  But  before  it  was  voted  upon  all 
of  us  came  to  our  senses.  The  truth  seemed  to  stalk 
before  me  unguided,  as  the  truth  needs  no  guide.  It 
seemed  to  say :  "  What  right  have  you  to  do  this 
thing?  Is  this  a  university  or  a  penal  institution? 
Will  you  strive  to  give  wings  to  thought  and  then  kill  it 
when  it  tries  to  fly?  How  are  you  going  to  combat 
error  if  it  is  not  exposed  ?  Do  you  not  know  that  the 
fearless  teacher  presents  every  facet  of  the  intellect  in 
action  ?  Next  time  you  oppress  an  intellectual  process 
it  may  be  the  death  of  a  great  truth.  Where  are  you 
going  to  draw  the  line  inside  the  demarcation  of  com- 
plete freedom  of  thought  and  speech  ?  If  the  truth  can- 
not withstand  the  competition  of  error  it  becomes  error, 
and  error  becomes  truth." 


264  THE  IKON  HUNTEE 

Then  the  disgraceful  resolution  that  I  had  helped  to 
father  I  helped  to  kill. 

Wenley  still  shakes  things  up,  and  I  have  come  to 
have  a  large  respect  for  his  work  without  yielding  an 
iota  of  my  Presbyterianism. 


CHAPTER  XXXI 

TOM  MAY'S  KERRY  PHILOSOPHY  A  SOCIAL  THERMOMETER 

I  DO  not  know  when  I  began  to  learn  that  the  only 
warrant  for  a  public  career  is  a  desire  born  of 
a  willingness  to  serve ;  to  give  back  to  society  some 
of  self  in  payment  for  the  great  benefits  social  order 
grants  to  the  individual ;  or  when  I  had  my  first  realiza- 
tion that  a  republic  cannot  endure,  and  civil  and  reli- 
gious liberty  will  not  have  a  collective  instrument  of 
protection  unless  men  and  women  offer  themselves 
freely. 

In  my  early  forenoon  of  life  I  saw  only  the  selfish 
side  and  purpose  of  both  private  and  public  activity. 
To  win  was  the  thing;  to  take;  no  thought  of  paying 
back. 

One  night  I  was  guiding  Tom  May,  my  cartoonist 
friend,  through  a  Lake  Superior  jungle  to  our  hunting 
camp.  It  was  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago. 
He  had  learned  something  that  I  had  not  even  thought 
of,  although  we  were  born  the  same  year  —  1860. 

"  Hold  on  there,  old  man,"  he  called  from  behind. 
"  This  isn't  a  Marathon,  is  it  ?  " 

I  replied  that  it  was  already  so  dark  I  could  see  the 
compass  needle  with  difficulty  and  that  we  must  strike 
the  trail  a  mile  farther  on  if  we  were  to  have  com- 
fortable going  after  the  night  cover  all  settled  down. 

Swish !     Tom  gave  a  yell. 

"  I  suppose  that  brush  would  have  cut  off  my  head 
265 


266  THE  IKON  HUNTEK 

if  you  hadn't  held  it  back ;  as  it  was  it  only  snipped  off 
my  nose  and  one  ear  and  took  a  chunk  out  of  my  game 
eye,  blast  it !  " 

"  But,  Tom,  I  have  told  you  a  thousand  times,  which 
should  be  nearly  enough  for  an  Irishman,  to  walk  far 
enough  behind  so  that  the  switches  won't  hit  you." 

"  That's  all  right  and  whan  I  do,  you  get  out  of  sight 
and  a  wolf  bites  me  trousers.  Gimme  the  switch  ivery 
time." 

Tom  always  dropped  into  the  soft,  sweet,  Irish 
brogue  that  his  soul  loved  whenever  he  was  not  at  a 
city-tension. 

On  the  trail  we  took  our  time  and  visited.  Tom  said 
he  wondered  why  rich  men  did  not  remember  while 
going  through  life  that  there  are  no  pockets  in  shrouds. 

"  And  they  just  take  and  take  and  grab  and  scoop  and 
grub  to  get  it,  only  to  hope  to  square  things  when  they 
are  on  their  death  beds  by  giving  it  away.  They  can't 
do  it.  Tickets  to  heaven  are  not  on  sale  at  a  box  office, 
and  there  are  no  special  reservations  for  millionaires. 
And  most  people  are  learning  that  God's  books  are  kept 
day  by  day  just  like  the  street  car  companies'.  Five- 
cent  fares  make  big  totals.  Little  daily  deeds  count  up 
big  in  life's  long  run.  The  fellow  who  gives  most  is 
going  to  get  most  in  the  end,  not  the  fellow  who  takes 
the  most  from  others  without  any  thought  of  paying 
back,  or  dividing  until  the  fine  old  gent  with  the  scythe 
and  long  whiskers  gets  his  big  spectacles  focused  on 
him." 

Thus  we  strolled  to  camp  as  Tom  preached  in  big- 
hearted,  Kerry  style.  It  made  a  deep  impression  upon 
me.  At  another  time  some  years  later,  obedient  to  the 
woods'  muse,  he  said : 

"  Notice  our  friends  Carnaygie  and  Kockefeller  are 


TOM  MAY'S  KEKKY  PHILOSOPHY     267 

having  a  goose  race  giving  away  money.  Andy  is  a 
shade  the  more  anxious  and  has  a  wild  Scotch  glare 
under  the  brush  that  grows  over  his  eyes.  Ye  see  he 
has  a  Homestead  riot  and  dead  children  and  women 
and  frinzied  men  trampin'  on  his  soul.  Kocky  hasn't 
anything  like  that.  Maybe  he  will  be  able  to  make  a 
long  drive  through  the  pearly  gates,  but  I'll  bet  Andy 
will  slice  or  top  the  pill." 

All  of  this  indicated  the  coming  of  a  new  era  in  pub- 
lic thought.  There  was  a  hunger  for  heart  and  soul 
growth.  We  had  only  stomach  growth  up  to  then  or 
not  much  more,  and  we,  as  a  nation  and  as  a  people,  it 
would  seem,  were  hunchbacked  in  front. 

Demagogues  were  vying  with  honest  men  in  their 
eagerness  to  make  hay.  There  was  a  grasshopper 
plague  of  fake  reformers  in  every  State  and  some  of 
them  drew  the  eye  of  the  nation.  It  was  difficult  always 
to  pick  out  the  spurious.  In  fact,  I  doubt  if  a 
good  many  of  the  political  disciples  of  the  new  era 
could  tell  just  how  much  they  were  for  self  and  how 
much  for  what  they  advocated.  Men  were  reformers, 
insurgents  and  progressive  until  they  got  into  office,  and 
were  active  enough  to  attract  the  attention  of  the  fat 
boys.  Only  then  they  dried  up  like  a  desert  spring  or 
became  conservative. 


CHAPTEE  XXXII 

I   AM    ELECTED    GOVERNOR    OF    MICHIGAN 

THERE  was  much  dissatisfaction  with  the  state 
of  public  affairs  in  Michigan.  Higher  ideals  of 
government  began  to  he  asserted  in  many  places. 
A  man,  perhaps  worthy  enough,  but  who  was  regarded 
as  being  very  ordinary,  had  been  elected  Governor  for  a 
third  term.  The  State  was  bankrupt. 

At  least  one  of  the  state  institutions,  Jackson  prison, 
was  notorious  for  its  mismanagement  and  worse.  The 
state  treasurer,  Glazier,  was  discovered  short  several 
hundred  thousand  dollars  in  his  accounts.  He  had  been 
closely  identified  with  Warner,  personally  and  polit- 
ically, and  had  carried  large  deposits  in  the  bank  in 
which  Warner  was  a  stockholder  and  officer.  The 
warden  of  Jackson  prison,  Armstrong,  had  been  con- 
victed of  crookedness  in  prison  affairs  and  sentenced  to 
a  term  of  confinement.  The  air  was  filled  with  dis- 
trust. Charges  and  rumors  pursued  each  other  in  the 
public  mind.  Consequently  when  the  Warner  admin- 
istration proposed  to  perpetuate  itself  by  the  nomina- 
tion and  election  of  Patrick  H.  Kelley,  who  was  Lieu- 
tenant-Governor,  there  was  an  upheaval  of  opposition. 
This  took  form  in  several  counter  movements. 

A  number  of  my  friends  urged  me  to  become  a  can- 
didate for  Governor.  They  called  attention  to  the  con- 
dition of  affairs  only  too  apparent  in  the  State.  Fur- 
thermore they  stated  that  the  Upper  Peninsula  had 

268 


ELECTED  GOVERNOR  OF  MICHIGAN     269 

never  been  given  a  governor.  Naturally,  they  reminded 
me  of  my  experience  in  state  affairs.  I  was  not  per- 
mitted to  forget  what  they  had  often  heard  me  say, 
that  I  thought  every  citizen  was  obligated  to  serve  his 
country  at  any  time  he  was  needed,  in  peace  or  war, 
and  should  hold  himself  in  readiness  to  do  so,  and 
should  freely  and  frequently  offer.  I  had  not  thought 
of  being  a  candidate  but  it  was  not  difficult  to  persuade 
me  to  be.  Perhaps  the  one  thing  that  had  most  to  do 
with  my  decision,  after  the  duty  that  I  held  to  be 
involved,  was  the  possession  of  an  independent  tempera- 
ment, that  did  not  seem  to  permit  a  consideration  of  the 
countless  cautions  that  come  so  frequently  to  all  per- 
sons in  public  place. 

It  really  seemed  that  a  person  so  constituted  might 
render  valuable  service  at  this  very  time.  I  had  in 
mind  a  number  of  things  that  I  thought  ought  to  be 
given  state  attention.  One  of  these  was  a  workmen's 
compensation  law.  I  was  heartily  in  favor  of  woman 
suffrage,  and  though  I  could  not  be  called  a  prohibition- 
ist as  the  term  was  defined  then,  and  was  not  at  that 
time  a  total  abstainer,  I  was  opposed  to  the  saloon  and 
to  commercialized  booze.  I  knew  that  it  had  the  larg- 
est control  of  state  and  local  politics,  not  only  where  its 
interests  were  involved,  but  extended  its  dictation  far 
beyond  in  a  meddlesome  way  just  because  it  had  the 
power.  I  proposed  to  take  a  shot  at  this  social  hyena 
if  I  got  a  chance,  and  in  order  to  get  a  shot  I  decided 
to  stalk  it.  Moreover,  I  was  in  a  position  of  economic 
independence,  with  sufficient  means  so  that  I  did  not 
have  to  depend  upon  a  public  income,  nor  upon  persons 
who  might  subscribe  to  a  campaign  with  the  hope  and 
purpose  of  controlling  me,  and  yet  I  did  not  possess 
so  much  that  my  interests  ramified  in  directions  where  I 


270  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

might  suffer  injury  from  those  who  control  the  money 
affairs  of  the  country  and  destroy  the  credit  of  any  who 
oppose  them,  which  is  a  way  they  have  if  one  falls  into 
their  power. 

I  became  a  candidate  for  Governor.  There  were 
three  other  candidates :  Patrick  H.  Kelley,  of  Lansing ; 
Amos  Musselman,  of  Grand  Rapids,  and  Justice  Robert 
M.  Montgomery,  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Michigan. 
At  the  start  it  looked  as  though  Mr.  Kelley  would  win 
easily  if  the  Warner  opposition,  general  as  it  was,  was 
divided  among  three.  The  best-equipped  candidate  of 
all,  in  some  respects,  was  Justice  Montgomery.  He  was 
a  distinguished  member  of  Michigan's  highest  court 
and  had  friends  in  every  part  of  the  State.  He  had 
the  backing  of  the  Supreme  Court,  which  at  that  time 
did  not  hesitate  to  sit  into  the  game  of  politics,  and  it 
knew  how  with  the  best  of  them. 

There  is  a  constitutional  provision  in  Michigan  pro- 
hibiting a  circuit  judge  from  being  a  candidate  for  a 
political  office  while  on  the  bench  and  for  one  year  after 
retiring  from  such  service.  I  did  not  believe  that  Mr. 
Montgomery  had  considered  whether  it  was  right  for 
him,  as  a  member  of  a  court  whose  duty  it  was  to  en- 
force this  law,  to  do  that  which  was  a  violation  of  the 
very  principle  he  was  obligated  to  compel  others  to  ob- 
serve (nor  did  Mr.  Hughes  search  his  soul  deeply  in 
this  regard).  I  was  certain  he  had  no  moral  right  to 
be  a  candidate  and  I  even  questioned  his  legal  right. 
Against  the  counsel  of  all  my  close  advisers,  I  addressed 
an  open  letter  to  him  setting  forth  the  claim  that  legiti- 
mately and  ethically  he  had  no  right  to  be  a  candidate 
and  ending  by  demanding  his  withdrawal.  I  was  de- 
termined at  the  outset  to  be  open  and  aboveboard  in  all 
of  my  actions  and  utterances  as  a  candidate,  wherever 


ELECTED  GOVEKNOK  OF  MICHIGAN     271 

the  welfare  of  the  State  was  concerned.  My  state- 
ment caused  a  sensation  in  political  circles.  It  made 
the  friends  of  Justice  Montgomery  very  angry,  and  they 
were  swift  to  call  attention  to  the  act  as  proof  of  my 
backwoods'  crudeness  and  my  unfitness  to  be  Governor 
of  a  great  state.  Also  for  a  time,  Justice  Montgomery 
was  as  angry  as  his  friends.  Finally,  his  high  sense  of 
honor,  his  keen,  intellectual  appreciation  of  the  justness 
of  my  position,  and  his  ethical  standards  caused  him  to 
view  the  situation  differently.  He  was  big  enough 
finally  to  achieve  self-mastery.  He  sent  me  word,  in 
fact  told  me  personally,  that  if  I  would  let  up  on  the 
matter  he  would  retire  from  the  field  if  a  graceful  way 
was  presented.  At  once,  I  took  the  matter  up  with  the 
real  friends  of  the  Justice.  The  result  was  that  he  re- 
tired from  the  gubernatorial  contest  and  accepted  a  place 
on  the  newly  erected  intermediary  court  at  Washington. 

This  left  three  candidates.  The  nomination  of  Mr. 
Kelley  was  freely  predicted.  He  was  a  cheery,  genial, 
lovable  person,  who  carried  the  serious  things  of  life 
lightly  and  radiated  good-fellowship.  As  a  political 
campaigner  he  was  supposed  to  be  invincible.  His 
friends  said  hopefully  and  warningly :  "  Just  wait  un- 
til he  gets  that  man  Osborn  on  the  platform  and  watch 
Kelley  clean  up  on  him." 

I  quite  agreed  with  them  that  Mr.  Kelley  might  do 
things  to  me,  but  even  in  secret  I  was  not  afraid.  I 
had  gone  into  the  fight  hammer  and  tongs,  and  had  made 
up  my  mind  to  give  as  hard  thrusts  as  I  could  and  take 
smilingly  all  the  enemy  gave  to  me.  While  yet  a  boy 
I  had  been  taught  that  in  life  a  man  must  be  just  as 
good  as  an  anvil  as  he  is  as  a  hammer ;  take  blows  as  well 
as  give  them. 

There  were  the  usual  Lincoln  Club,  Chandler  Club, 


272  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

McKinley  Club  and  Washington  Birthday  political  ban- 
quets that  are  quite  peculiar  to  Michigan  where  they 
have  been  developed  to  the  nth  potency.  Musselman  did 
not  seem  to  be  much  in  evidence  at  these  feasts.  Kelley 
and  I  were  invited  to  all  of  them.  At  first  the  attrac- 
tion was  what  Kelley  might  do  to  me.  Afterwards 
the  curiosity  centered  about  what  I  might  say  about  the 
Warner-Kelley  machine.  I  had  to  hook  Kelley  up  to 
the  Warner  odium,  which  was  not  hard  to  do,  because 
his  generous  disposition  had  influenced  him  good- 
naturedly  to  tag  along  after  Warner. 

There  was  a  great  deal  of  distrust  felt  between  the 
two  peninsulas  of  Michigan.  The  people  of  the  Lower 
Peninsula  thought  of  the  Upper  Peninsula  as  being 
controlled  by  a  coterie  of  mining  autocrats  who  were 
political  despots,  possessed  of  a  determination  to  dodge 
their  taxes  and  duties  and  milk  the  State  of  its  rich  re- 
sources with  no  return,  or  as  little  as  possible.  The 
Upper  Peninsula,  and  especially  the  people  of  the  min- 
ing regions,  regarded  their  Lower  Peninsula  fellow- 
citizens  as  being  a  lot  of  hayseeds  and  rubes,  who  were 
not  fit  for  free  government  and  impossible  of  compre- 
hending the  merits  of  the  northern  portion  of  the  State. 
My  opponents  used  this  prejudice  and  fanned  it  per- 
sistently. The  population  of  the  State  was  about  two 
and  a  half  million  people  in  the  Lower  Peninsula,  two- 
thirds  of  the  area,  and  about  three  hundred  thousand  in 
ike  Upper  Peninsula.  The  northern  section  was  over- 
whelmingly Republican,  and  had  been  known,  espe- 
cially when  General  Alger  was  beaten  in  the  lower  sec- 
tion, to  reverse  the  Democratic  decision  below  the 
straits.  Such  fealty  had  its  reward  from  the  Repub- 
lican managers  just  to  the  extent  that  was  thought 


ELECTED  GOVEBNOK  OF  MICHIGAN     273 

essary  to  keep  it  in  line.  It  had  never  been  accorded  a 
Governor  and  many  wise  ones  predicted  that  it  never 
would.  I  do  not  think  there  was  a  time  during  the 
campaign  when  my  best  friends  in  the  Upper  Peninsula 
thought  I  could  win.  I  did  not  worry  about  that,  nor 
was  I  deeply  concerned  about  the  issue  of  the  contest. 

I  decided  that  the  battle  ground  was  the  Lower  Penin- 
sula and  there  I  went,  going  from  county  to  county, 
most  of  the  time  by  automobile.  I  did  not  make  a 
speech  in  the  Upper  Peninsula.  I  enjoyed  the  cam- 
paign. It  was  hard,  but  it  gave  me  a  chance  to  see  and 
talk  to  the  people  which  I  did  with  earnest  bluntness 
and  direct  conviction.  I  visited  every  county  in  the 
Lower  Peninsula  and  made  speeches  in  all  of  them, 
often  ten  or  fifteen  in  a  day,  many  of  course  being  only 
a  few  minutes  in  length,  and  many  of  greater  length. 
When  the  campaign  was  at  its  height  as  many  as  thirty 
automobiles  would  follow  me  through  the  county,  as 
upon  a  triumphal  tour.  Bands,  banners  and  enthusi- 
asm made  an  atmosphere,  and  the  audiences  were  certain 
to  be  good.  For  the  most  part  I  did  not  talk  politics. 
It  was  safe  to  assume  that  the  voters  understood.  They 
did.  I  promised  to  clean  out  the  Warner  gang  that  had 
wrecked  and  disgraced  Michigan.  That  seemed  to  be 
what  they  wanted. 

Just  before  election  day  Amos  Musselman  encouraged 
the  editor  of  the  Escanaba  Journal  to  make  an  attack 
upon  my  honesty.  Thousands  of  copies  of  the  paper 
were  circulated  over  the  State.  The  enemy  saw  that 
the  libel  was  reprinted  wherever  possible.  They  hoped 
that  it  was  too  late  for  me  to  defend  myself.  I  had  the 
editor  arrested  at  once  and  started  suit  against  Mussel- 
man and  others.  I  felt  within  myself  that  if  the  peo- 


274  THE  IKON  HUNTER 

pie  could  be  fooled  by  an  eleventh-hour  move  of  this 
kind,  there  was  no  way  to  prevent  it.  Knowing  my  in- 
nocence I  trusted  to  the  good  sense  of  the  voters.  At 
the  primaries,  I  was  successful  by  the  following  vote: 
Osborn,  88,270;  Kelley,  52,337;  Musselman,  50,721. 
My  vote  in  the  Lower  Peninsula  was  the  big  surprise 
to  the  dopesters.  Below  the  straits  it  was  69,479  and 
18,791  above. 

As  soon  as  the  matters  could  be  forced  to  an  issue,  the 
editor  who  had  libeled  me  was  convicted,  and  Mussel- 
man, in  humiliation,  made  public  admission  that  he  had 
done  wrong,  and  the  case  against  him  was  dropped.  As 
showing  his  fairness  and  good  citizenship  and  his  real- 
ization of  his  responsibilities  as  a  publisher,  I  may  say 
here  that  in  1918  when  I  was  a  candidate  for  the  nomi- 
nation of  United  States  Senator,  this  editor  was  one  of 
my  strongest  supporters. 

The  state  campaign  that  followed  was  not  as  much 
of  a  contest  as  the  primary  had  been,  but  it  was  a  fight. 
The  late  Lawton  T.  Hemans,  of  Ingham  County,  was 
nominated  by  the  Democrats.  Hemans  was  a  strong 
man.  He  had  been  a  candidate  for  Governor  before 
and  was  well  known  and  respected.  As  a  lawyer  and 
local  historian,  he  had  covered  much  of  Michigan  cred- 
itably. It  was  a  mid-year  campaign,  between  the  presi- 
dential contests.  There  was  nothing  to  prevent  inter- 
est from  centering  upon  a  state  campaign. 

Republican  dissatisfaction  and  insurgency  were  in  the 
air.  The  Taft  administration  program  of  blunders  was 
just  becoming  known.  Only  seven  States  in  the  Union 
were  carried  by  the  Republicans.  I  received  one  of  the 
largest  majorities  given  a  Republican  Governor  that 
year,  1910.  The  vote  on  election  day  was  Osborn 


ELECTED  GOVEKSTOK  OF  MICHIGAN     275 

202,803;  Hemans,  159,770,  or  a  plurality  for  me  of 
43,033. 

During  the  campaign  the  Democrats  had  combed  my 
record  with  particular  care,  but  found  nothing  they 
could  use. 


CHAPTER  XXXIII 

I    STABT    A   FIGHT    AGAINST    THE    SALOON    THAT    KEEPS 
UP    TO    THE    END 

AFTER  election  in  the  autumn  of  1910  I  retired  to 
Deerfoot  Lodge  where  Justice  Steere,  the  Hon- 
orable Roys  J.  Cram  and  I  have  kept  open  house 
during  the  deer  season  for  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century. 
It  is  a  beautiful  spot  in  a  primeval  forest  of  maple, 
birch  and  beech.  Pine  plains  furnish  a  change  in  one 
direction,  and  deep  swamps  flank  the  hardwood  and  give 
lair  for  bear  and  wolf  and  lynx.  Shadowy  hemlocks, 
with  limbs  bedecked  with  old  man's  beard,  like  Spanish 
moss,  and  red-berried  yew  shintangle  as  carpet  make  a 
wild  garden  where  the  fawns  hide  in  spring,  and  bucks 
snort,  paw  and  horn  trees  in  autumn. 

Here  I  wrote  my  inaugural  message  on  some  rough 
scraps  of  paper;  no  library  but  my  thoughts,  and  no 
reference  book  but  my  heart.  Deerfoot  was  then  only 
a  modest  log  shack  of  one  room,  where  friends  came  and 
rolled  in  on  the  floor,  and  roughed  it  in  a  way  to  take 
the  city  stiffness  out  of  body  and  spirit.  Here  I  wrote 
down  briefly  my  views  upon  the  liquor  question  for  my 
message  as  follows : 

Temperance  is  a  matter  of  personal  discipline  and  is 
more  of  a  moral  and  social  problem  than  political.  The 
regulation  of  the  liquor  traffic  is  largely  a  political  func- 
tion. The  upheaval  and  interest  in  Michigan  and  over  the 
country  along  these  lines  are,  in  my  opinion,  aimed  more 

276 


A  FIGHT  AGAINST  THE  SALOON     277 

at  the  liquor  traffic  than  at  the  temperate  use  of  alcoholic 
beverages.  It  appears  that  temperance  is  handicapped  un- 
less those  who  believe  even  in  rationalism  become  excited 
and  militant.  The  saloon  of  to-day  is  a  social  saprophyte. 
Always  it  has  been  a  breeding  place  of  lawlessness  and  a 
culture  ground  of  vice.  So  arrogant  had  it  become  that 
government  by  saloon  and  rule  by  brewery  was  the  practical 
condition.  The  candidate  who  did  not  bow  to  the  joint 
keeper  and  the  local  official  who  did  not  recognize  the  po- 
litical power  of  alcohol,  as  manifested  through  low  grog- 
geries,  were  in  for  a  fight  all  of  the  time  to  save  their 
political  lives.  Breweries  were  not  contented  with  a  dis- 
tribution to  such  saloons  as  might  naturally  exist.  So  they 
entered  upon  an  artificial  policy  of  starting  saloons  at  all 
convenient  places  where  the  consumption  of  their  product 
would  be  increased.  There  is  intense  competition  between 
brewers  for  the  installation  and  control  of  saloons.  Con- 
ditions became  intolerable.  The  people  broke  out  in  con- 
tagious rebellion,  all  invoked  by  the  exaggerated  commer- 
cializing of  alcohol. 

A  desire  for  better  conditions  exists  in  the  heart  of  every 
good  citizen.  The  average  man  does  not  wish  to  be  fanat- 
ical or  intolerant.  He  does  not  wish  to  apply  sumptuary 
laws  that  abridge  personal  liberty  beyond  the  point  of  pub- 
lic good.  But  government  by  saloon  and  brewery  must  go 
and  artificial  stimulation  of  the  traffic  in  beer  and  whiskey 
must  be  discontinued.  In  a  degree  it  is  true  that  the  sa- 
loon is  the  poor  man's  club.  But  the  rich  man's  club  af- 
fects only  the  more  or  less  useless  few,  while  the  poor  man's 
club,  if  low  in  character  and  degenerating  in  influence,  in- 
jures the  useful  many.  Society  can  stand  crumbling  at 
the  top,  for  that  is  the  natural  spot  of  decay,  but  it  cannot 
survive  necrosis  of  its  foundation  masses.  The  local  option 
policy  is  good  and  out  of  it  can  come  improving  condi- 
tions. In  communities  where  saloons  exist  there  should  not 
be  more  than  one  to  a  thousand  population,  and  breweries 
should  be  divorced  from  their  ownership.  The  license  should 
be  higher  but  more  attention  should  be  paid  to  the  character 
of  the  saloonkeeper  and  the  conduct  of  the  saloon  than  to 
the  amount  of  the  license.  I  would'  suggest  a  law  prorid- 


278  THE  IKON  HUNTEK 

ing  for  fuller  state  supervision  of  saloons.  The  State  dis- 
pensary system  is  ideal,  but  proved  a  failure  in  South 
Carolina.  In  Kussia,  where  alcohol  is  a  government  mo- 
nopoly, the  dispensary  system  is  fairly  commendable.  In 
Pennsylvania  the  courts  regulate  the  liquor  traffic,  give  and 
revoke  licenses.  In  Canada  the  hotel  system  prevails. 

I  would  like  to  see  the  question  studied  for  Michigan  by 
an  honorary  commission  to  be  composed  of  some  of  the  most 
noble,  courageous  and  unselfish  citizens  of  the  State. 

This  is  an  age  of  stimulation.  The  physical  tensity  of 
our  civilization  makes  for  it  The  quantities  consumed  in 
this  country  alone  of  alcohol  in  various  forms,  opium,  co- 
caine, tea,  coffee  and  tobacco  are  startling  and  transfix 
with  horror  when  contemplated,  commanding  the  interest  of 
every  person  concerned  in  the  welfare  of  society.  Over 
stimulation  is  the  source  of  disease,  pauperism  and  crime. 
In  the  long  run  these  conditions  can  be  corrected  only  by 
going  to  the  foundation  of  things.  Man  must  not  drive 
man  so  hard.  Conditions  of  life  for  the  masses  must  be  bet- 
ter. Rest  for  the  weary,  food  for  the  underfed,  entertain- 
ment and  respite  for  those  whose  monotony  of  life  is  caused 
by  over-work  must  be  provided  and  finer  human  fellowship 
must  come  to  prevail. 

While  these  ideals  are  working  out,  proclaiming  the  com- 
ing some  day,  of  the  superman,  the  State  must  see  that 
selfish  and  careless  individuals  do  not  over  capitalize  the 
appetites  of  man.  Wholesome  regulation  cannot  grow  out 
of  fanatical  intolerance  or  exaggerated  extremity.  Op- 
pressive rule  by  majority  is  only  another  form  of  the  appli- 
cation of  might.  The  greatest  good  to  the  greatest  number 
should  be  succeeded  by  the  aim  to  accomplish  the  greatest 
average  good  for  all.  This  will,  I  believe,  be  your  inspira- 
tion for  suggested  corrective  legislation. 

I  had  stalked  within  range  of  the  most  deadly  thing 
I  knew  of  and  was  to  take  this  shot  at  it.  No  recent 
Michigan  governor  had  referred  to  it.  The  subject  was 
politically  taboo.  I  knew  that  it  would  bring  to  me 
3,11,, the  trouble  -the  whiskey  makers  .and  whiskey  sellers 


A  FIGHT  AGAINST  THE  SALOON     279 

could  oppose  me  with.  There  was  no  halfway  realiza- 
tion of  it  upon  my  part. 

The  effect  of  this  and  other  things  I  proposed  to  at- 
tempt to  do  was  to  arrive  at  the  decision  that  I  would 
not  be  a  candidate  for  a  second  term.  All  of  my  ad- 
visers endeavored  to  dissuade  me  from  making  such  an 
announcement,  and  especially  at  the  outset.  But  I 
could  not  be  deterred  by  their  convincing  arguments 
that  it  was  not  good  politics.  I  was  not  playing  poli- 
tics, had  not  been  and  did  not  intend  to  start.  That 
was  the  trouble  with  everything  in  public  Michigan. 
Everybody  had  been  playing  politics  every  minute  until 
things  had  reached  an  impossible  mess.  The  one  thing 
I  hoped  to  convey  to  the  public  was  that  I  had  no  per- 
sonal political  object  in  view  as  a  result  of  any  act; 
nothing  but  the  public  good.  It  seemed  to  me  that  the 
only  way  to  start  fair  was  to  make  an  honest  one-term 
decision,  announce  it  and  stick  to  it.  Down  deep  within 
my  being  I  knew  the  danger  to  my  plans  that  lurked  in 
a  desire  for  a  second  term. 

So  insidious  are  the  operations  of  desire  that  it  may 
almost  be  said  of  it  when  it  exists  that  no  act  of  a  man's 
life  is  independent  of  it.  He  may  be  as  honest  as  is  hu- 
manly possible  and  as  unconscious,  but  his  acts  will  be 
influenced.  So  I  burned  all  bridges  behind  me  and  felt 
better  when  I  had  done  so.  There  was  very  much  to 
do,  and  I  did  not  wish  the  handicap  of  trimming  or 
playing  politics  for  a  second  term. 


CHAPTEK  XXXIV 

FIGHTING    FOE   THE    LIFE    OF    MICHIGAN    AGAINST    THE 

HUMAN    BLOODSUCKERS    THAT    SUBSIST    ON 

SOCIETY    EVERYWHERE 

THE  first  of  January,  1911,  I  was  inaugurated  as 
Governor  of  Michigan.  In  order  to  devote  every 
energy  to  the  program  of  accomplishment  I  had 
outlined,  I  had  determined  that  I  would  leave  the  office 
at  the  close  of  my  two-year  term  and  would  not  be  a 
candidate  for  reelection.  There  was  much  to  do  and 
I  realized  that  I  would  have  strong  opposition  to  the 
passage  of  the  measures  I  advocated.  The  political  or- 
ganizations of  Detroit  were  powerful  at  the  state  capi- 
tal. Detroit  control  had  passed  long  before  into  the 
hands  of  a  local  Tammany  that  would  stop  at  nothing. 
The  organization,  unwritten,  but  understood,  included 
men  in  both  the  Republican  and  Democratic  parties, 
grading  up  from  convicts  to  semi-respectables  and  con- 
nected with  men  on  both  sides  occupying  positions  of 
trust  and  prominence,  but  ready  at  all  times  to  profit 
by  their  political  relationship  to  this  tong,  and  just  as 
ready  to  be  parties  to  questionable  political  practices 
that  they  might  not  think  of  resorting  to  if  proposed  in 
their  professions.  This  gang  was  "  The  Vote  Swap- 
pers' League,"  named  such  by  E.  G.  Pipp,  manager  at 
that  time  of  the  Detroit  News.  Most  of  the  men  had 
double  standards  of  practice;  one  for  politics  and  an- 
other for  business.  Most  of  those  who  aided  the  crooked 

280 


FOR  THE  LIFE  OF  MICHIGAN        281 

league  in  the  work  were  well  known.  The  Republicans 
were  even  worse  than  their  Democrat  partners,  because 
they  presumed  to  hold  their  heads  a  little  higher,  cloak 
themselves  in  a  bespotted  mantle  of  respectability  and 
patronize  the  town  clubs  and  the  golf  links,  and  even  go 
so  far  as  to  identify  themselves  with  a  church  if  it 
served  a  purpose.  These  fine  bucktails  divided  the  of- 
fices among  their  faithful,  controlled  the  Council, 
boasted  of  their  standing  in  the  several  judicial  strata 
and  most  thoroughly  removed  the  political  viscera  from 
any  reformer  or  citizens'  movement  that  started  any 
Taiping  revolution.  I  had  to  decide  whether  I  would 
serve  Michigan  or  the  Vote  Swappers'  League.  I  chose 
the  flag  of  Michigan.  The  word  was  passed  to  the  De- 
troit gang  that  I  could  not  be  controlled.  This  started 
a  war  upon  me  that  has  gone  the  length  of  bitterness. 

The  fight  was  staged  first  in  the  Legislature.  I  found 
myself  as  Governor  at  first  unable  to  secure  a  majority 
for  anything  for  which  any  credit  or  responsibility  at- 
tached to  the  Governor's  office.  Gradually  the  legisla- 
tive opposition  wore  down.  Finally  I  had  a  certain 
majority  in  the  House  and  soon  after  in  the  Senate. 
The  failures  in  legislation  were  few  and  only  of  meas- 
ures that  required  a  two-thirds  majority. 

A  multitude  of  things  came  up  in  the  executive  office. 
I  had  succeeded  an  administration  unfriendly  to  me, 
and  things  were  not  made  easy  for  me,  which  did  not 
alarm  or  dissuade  me.  I  had  been  accustomed  to  long 
hours  and  there  was  keen  delight  in  putting  them  in 
now. 

The  very  day  I  was  inaugurated  a  plot  was  discov- 
ered to  blow  up  Jackson  prison  with  dynamite.  The 
warden  was  new  and  there  was  much  nervousness.  De- 
pendable guards  were  not  known  from  the  ones  in  league 


282  THE  IKON  HUNTER 

with  the  convicts.  I  counseled  with  Warden  Russell, 
of  Marquette  prison,  and  Warden  Fuller,  of  the  Ionia 
Reformatory,  both  officials  of  long  experience  and  high 
ability.  I  succeeded  in  getting  a  line  on  the  bad  men 
in  Jackson.  I  had  them  brought  to  the  executive  office 
one  at  a  time  and  between  two  and  four  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  so  that  absolute  secrecy  might  be  secured.  I 
succeeded  in  obtaining  enough  information  to  locate 
and  remove  quantities  of  high  explosives,  and  to  break 
up  the  convict  gang,  distributing  the  members  among 
other  prisons.  While  at  this  task  I  learned  many  other 
incidental  facts.  My  greatest  surprise  was  caused  and 
my  indignation  was  particularly  aroused  by  the  indis- 
putable knowledge  that  a  traffic  in  pardons  and  paroles 
was  going  on.  I  forced  at  once  the  resignation  of  the 
Board  of  Pardons  and  a  new  Board  was  appointed.  I 
appointed  a  complete,  new  bi-partisan  Prison  Board  of 
big  men. 

I  learned  that  one  of  the  Tax  Commissioners  of  the 
State  was  also  the  retained  attorney  of  a  big  manufac- 
turer of  automobiles.  Of  course  the  lawyer  could  not 
serve  two  masters  for  conflicting  interests.  I  asked  him 
to  resign  and  he  did  so.  Another  Tax  Commissioner 
gave  very  little  time  to  the  work  and  his  performance 
was  very  unsatisfactory.  In  fact,  the  Commission  was 
in  a  rut.  I  asked  this  man  to  resign.  The  epidemic 
phrase  was  "  Go  to  hell."  This  fellow  applied  it  and  I 
removed  him.  This  removal  made  completely  new 
three  important  boards.  I  cleaned  out  every  vestige  of 
the  old  administration  that  seemed  to  be  necessary  to 
wholesome  state  administration.  In  doing  so  I  only 
kept  faith  with  the  people.  It  was  what  I  had  prom- 
ised them  I  would  do. 

When  I  became  Governor  a  deficit  existed  in  the 


FOK  THE  LIFE  OF  MICHIGAN        283 

state  treasury  of  about  a  million  dollars.  I  was  deter- 
mined to  wipe  this  out.  Many  economies  were  inau- 
gurated in  the  management  of  state  institutions.  In 
this  work  I  was  aided  by  every  institutional  superin- 
tendent in  Michigan  and  by  all  the  appointive  heads  of 
departments.  It  was  easy  to  save  the  State's  money  if 
one  managed  with  anything  like  the  same  care  with 
which  private  business  is  conducted. 

The  new  constitution  of  Michigan  gives  the  Governor 
unusual  fiscal  authority.  In  fact,  it  imposes  in  him  the 
power  and  responsibility  practically  of  financial  man- 
ager. The  Governor  can  veto  all  or  any  part  of  an  ap- 
propriation bill.  I  carefully  went  over  every  bill  with 
those  interested  in  it.  As  a  result  I  cut  out  nearly 
enough  to  pay  the  state  indebtedness.  This  financial 
use  of  the  veto  constitutes  a  precedent. 

But  it  was  in  saving  through  economies  introduced 
everywhere  that  the  big  results  were  obtained.  At  the 
conclusion  of  my  administration  the  State  was  out  of 
debt  and  the  treasury  contained  a  surplus  of  more  than 
two  million  dollars.  This  was  achieved  and  at  the  same 
time  more  money  was  appropriated  for  good  roads  than 
the  estimate  and  more  for  the  state  university  than  ever 
before.  The  tax  rate  was  also  reduced.  Also  this  sav- 
ing improved  the  conditions  at  all  state  institutions,  be- 
cause the  very  care  that  made  economy  possible  nat- 
urally conduced  to  improvements  in  every  detail  of  serv- 
ice. 

The  regular  session  of  the  Legislature  adjourned. 

Early  in  1912  I  called  a  special  session  and  followed 
it  immediately  with  a  second  special  session.  Under 
the  Michigan  constitution  the  Governor  is  empowered 
to  summon  the  Legislature  in  extraordinary  session. 
At  such  only  those  measures  submitted  in  message  by 


284  THE  IEO1ST  HUNTER 

the  Governor  may  be  considered.  The  effect  is  to  com- 
pel legislative  concentration  and  to  focus  the  eyes  of  the 
public  upon  important  measures.  At  a  regular  session 
there  is  pulling  and  hauling  and  trading  and  confusion, 
until  the  public  is  lost  in  a  muddle  of  vexatious  circum- 
stances and  the  legislators  are  nearly  as  badly  off. 

Very  near  to  my  heart  I  had  the  matter  of  a  work- 
men's compensation  law.  I  had  given  the  subject  con- 
siderable study  in  Germany  and  England  and  had  talked 
it  over  often  with  my  intimate  associates  and  many 
others.  The  Legislature  in  regular  session  had  em- 
powered the  Governor  to  appoint  a  commission  to  study 
the  question  and  draft  a  form  of  a  bill  embodying  a  suit- 
able law.  The  commission  appointed,  serving  without 
pay,  had  given  earnest  attention  to  the  important  sub- 
ject and  had  submitted  a  report  of  indubitable  value. 
To  obtain  action  upon  this  was  my  chief  first  purpose 
for  a  special  session.  Also  I  wished  to  utilize  this  meri- 
torious measure  to  further  define  and  stiffen  partisan 
lines  in  the  Legislature,  so  that  I  might  feed  in  good 
measures  that  otherwise  would  not  carry.  The  work- 
ingmen's  compensation  act  passed.  The  Legislature 
empowered  the  Governor  to  appoint  an  Industrial  Acci- 
dent Board  to  administer  the  law.  The  success  of  the 
new  law  might  largely  depend  upon  the  practical  foun- 
dation laid  for  it  in  its  earliest  application  and  inter- 
pretation. I  secured  for  the  board  the  only  two  mem- 
bers of  the  commission  that  framed  the  law  who  could  be 
secured  for  state  service.  By  virtue  of  the  understand- 
ing and  administration  of  this  law  by  the  first  board,  it 
came  to  be  recognized  as  one  of  the  best  compensation 
enactments  in  America.  It  has  been  copied  by  many 
other  States.  Gradually  it  will  undoubtedly  be  brought 
nearer  to  perfection. 


A  press  cartoon.     1910 


FOE  THE  LIFE  OF  MICHIGAN        285 

Police  Commissioner  Croul,  of  Detroit,  an  official  of 
rare  courage  and  capacity,  had  told  me  that  of  some  sev- 
enteen hundred  saloons  in  Detroit  quite  twelve  hundred 
were  owned  by  brewers  and  distillers.  It  was  their 
practice  to  start  a  booze  joint  on  every  likely  corner 
they  could  obtain  and  especially  near  factory  doors. 
Brewery-owned  saloons  were  the  worst  of  all.  I  saw  to 
it  that  a  bill  was  introduced  making  it  illegal  for  brew- 
ers and  distillers  to  own  or  encourage  saloons.  Forth- 
with fell  upon  me  the  liquor  people.  The  Royal  Ark, 
an  association  of  saloon  keepers  in  Detroit,  endeavored 
to  intimidate  members  of  the  Legislature.  Conditions 
of  much  bitterness  arose.  But  the  bill  became  a  law. 

I  found  the  Michigan  Bonding  Company  to  be  the 
most  hurtful  and  the  boldest  source  of  evil  in  the  State. 
It  was  organized  under  a  law  that  gave  it  the  practical 
control  of  all  the  saloons  in  the  State.  If  a  saloon 
keeper  did  not  obey  its  behests,  his  bonds  were  refused. 
It  charged  big  fees  and  was  strong  financially.  It  had 
one  or  more  agents  in  every  county  and  cleverly  selected 
them  from  among  the  best-equipped  attorneys.  By 
means  of  a  retainer  it  secured  the  services  of  lawyers 
who  would  not  naturally  line  up  with  it.  Thus 
equipped,  the  Michigan  Bonding  Company  became  a 
dangerous  entity.  Of  it  men  were  afraid.  It  was  the 
core  organization  around  which  was  built  the  opposition 
to  woman  suffrage,  prohibition  and  all  related  reforms. 
I  asked  the  Legislature  to  repeal  the  law  giving  it  exist- 
ence and  I  made  a  fight  against  it  that  was  nearly  suc- 
cessful. 

The  fight  at  Lansing  while  these  bills  were  pending 
became  a  vicious  one,  with  enough  bad  feeling  and  per- 
sonal passion  almost  to  obscure  reason  for  a  time.  I 
received  as  many  as  ten  letters  in  one  day  threatening 


286  THE  IKON  HUNTER 

my  life.  To  these  cowardly  messages  I  paid  no  atten- 
tion. They  only  indicated  the  feeling  that  existed 
among  the  whiskeyites.  Dynamite  was  placed  under 
my  house  but  it  did  not  explode.  My  residence  was  on 
fire  twice  mysteriously.  One  of  these  fires  occurred  at 
two  o'clock  in  the  morning.  I  was  attacked  on  all  sides. 
Throughout  all  the  conflict  I  did  not  worry  nor  lose 
sleep.  My  wife  stood  it  bravely  but  confesses  now  she 
was  deeply  worried  and  wearied.  But  only  words  of 
cheer  and  courage  came  from  her  then.  As  for  myself, 
I  thought  I  was  right  and  I  think  so  now  when  the  em- 
bers of  thought  are  colorless  from  fire.  Perhaps  I  took 
on  some  of  the  spirit  of  the  crusader.  At  least  I  placed 
my  trust  in  God  and  calmly  asked  divine  approval  and 
direction. 

Those  who  were  advocating  woman  suffrage  were  not 
united.  Some  of  them,  including  most  of  the  women 
propagandists  who  came  to  Lansing,  were  fearful  that  a 
measure  submitting  the  question  to  the  people  could  not 
pass  the  Legislature  and  that  its  failure  would  prove  a 
setback.  After  discussing  the  matter  with  Representa- 
tive Charles  Flowers,  a  veteran  partisan  of  the  cause, 
and  with  several  others,  I  decided  to  present  the  ques- 
tion. It  carried  nicely.  Later,  when  it  was  submitted 
for  popular  consideration,  it  undoubtedly  carried  in  the 
State.  However,  the  liquor  interests  succeeded  in  ob- 
scuring and  invalidating  the  result.  Its  next  submis- 
sion was  in  the  spring,  when  the  country  vote  is  light  as 
compared  with  that  of  the  cities,  and  suffrage  was  then 
unquestionably  defeated. 

When  the  returns  of  the  vote  began  to  indicate  that 
the  measure  had  passed  at  the  first  plebiscite,  those  op- 
posed held  back  the  reports  from  polling  precincts  that 
they  controlled,  giving  the  impression  that  whatever  to- 


FOR  THE  LIFE  OF  MICHIGAN        287 

tals  were  necessary  to  accomplish  the  defeat  of  the 
women  would  be  supplied.  There  were  signs  of  a 
sharp  practice  that  was  used  by  the  vicious  elements  to 
obtain  a  momentary  end.  Apparently  the  only  ade- 
quate redress  for  such  is  an  aroused  public  that  will 
finally  act  so  decisively  as  to  brook  no  resistance  or 
trickery. 

I  do  not  say  that  all  of  those  who  oppose  votes  for 
women  are  vicious,  but  I  do  say  that  wherever  I  have 
been  familiar  with  conditions,  the  management  of  the 
campaign  against  suffrage  has  been  controlled  either 
above  the  surface  or  below  it  by  those  who  are  inclined 
to  lawlessness  and  who  make  it  their  instinctive  busi- 
ness to  fight  anything  that  tends  to  improve  the  public 
tone  or  widen  the  zone  of  influence  of  those  who  would 
be  most  likely,  in  the  nature  of  things,  to  endeavor  to 
cure  those  evils  that  are  eating  cancerously  at  the  foun- 
dations of  the  human  family. 

Women  are  the  matrix  of  the  race.  They  occupy  a 
sphere  that  man,  a  mere  fertilizing  agent,  never  enters. 
Consequently  woman  knows  instinctively  when  her  own 
is  imperiled.  Fundamentally  this  is  the  raison  d'etre 
of  the  woman  movement.  All  talk  of  liberty  and  equal 
ity  is  incidental.  Nature,  always  operating  to  make 
life  dominant  over  death,  and  in  ways  often  most  ob- 
scure and  indirect  so  far  as  man's  vision  and  compre- 
hension are  concerned,  is  the  author  of  the  activity  that 
has  for  its  purpose  the  bringing  to  bear  of  the  powers 
of  woman  directly  against  the  jeopardy  of  her  children. 
The  tendency  may  be  delayed  or  misdirected  but  it 
cannot  be  defeated,  any  more  than  the  precession  of  the 
equinoxes  can  be  controlled  by  human  agencies. 
1  •'•  'My  in'es'sfcges;  to -thfe  Legislature,  in  special  sessions, 
are  a  true  guide  to  my  state  of  mind,  my  thought  proe- 


288  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

esses  and  convictions  at  that  time.  I  had  not  yet  con- 
vinced myself  that  there  could  not  be  some  compromise 
with  alcohol.  I  hoped  that  if  there  was  any  good  in  it 
that  it  might  be  separated  from  the  much  that  was  bad, 
and  the  desirable  retained  and  the  objectionable  re- 
jected. I  had  visions  of  state  control  that  would  be 
more  successful  than  the  dispensary  experience  by  the 
State  of  South  Carolina.  It  was  my  nebulous  hope  that 
the  whiskey  traffic  might  be  completely  taken  out  of 
trade  whereby  man's  degeneracy  was  made  a  source  of 
profit.  It  was  a  passing  dream  in  which  I  saw  pure 
whiskey,  beers  and  wines  served  at  cost  in  temperate 
quantities  in  clean  environment  to  those  who  might  be 
cheered  but  not  poisoned. 

But  I  was  nearing  the  time  when  I  became  convinced 
that  life  and  alcohol  cannot  exist  together  any  more 
rationally  than  life  and  death.  I  saw  the  constant 
struggle  of  nature  against  death  and  all  of  the  agencies 
of  decay ;  the  finely  maintained  equilibrium  of  wild  ani- 
mal and  vegetable  life;  the  self-pruning  processes  of 
primeval  forests  and  many  of  the  visible  efforts  of  the 
war  of  life  against  death.  Because  of  the  limited  visual 
powers  of  man,  there  are  more  invisible  activities  than 
those  that  we  can  see.  But  there  are  also  many  that  we 
are  slow  to  see  because  we  do  not  wish  to  see.  So  I  saw 
in  the  world's  growing  social  array  against  alcohol  sim- 
ply a  great  movement  of  life  against  death.  As  such  it 
will  succeed  in  spite  of  man's  blindness  and  opposition, 
just  because  of  the  world-old  truth  that  man  is  ever  the 
weak  proponent  and  God  is  forever  the  mighty  dispo^ 
nent. 

Michigan  voted  in  favor  of  state-wide  prohibition  at 
the  election  of  November,  1916,  and  in  favor  of  woman 
suffrage  in  1918. 


CHAPTEK  XXXV 

MY   PART    IN    THE    PRESIDENTIAL    CAMPAIGN    OF    1912 

THE  second  year  of  my  service  as  Governor  was  a 
year  of  presidential  campaign.  A  successor  to 
Mr.  Taft  was  to  be  selected.  Early  it  became  ap- 
parent that  there  was  great  dissatisfaction  with  Presi- 
dent Taft.  No  matter  what  merit  he  might  have,  and 
forgetful  of  his  great  public  services  in  the  past,  it  was 
plain  that  a  majority  of  his  party  would  not  and  did  not 
approve  or  trust  him  politically.  They  could  no  longer 
see  good  in  him  or  in  anything  he  proposed.  Because 
it  was  a  Taft  proposition,  the  proposed  Treaty  of  Cana- 
dian Reciprocity,  a  measure  of  great  merit,  was  bitterly 
opposed.  I  was,  I  think,  the  only  governor  in  the 
United  States  who  supported  that  treaty,  at  home  and  at 
Washington.  It  was  passed  with  difficulty,  after  long 
hearings  and  delays  that  aided  in  perverting  the  Cana- 
dian view  and  supplying  fuel  for  its  subsequent  repudia- 
tion across  the  border. 

Always  in  public  life  and  in  politics  I  have  clung  to 
certain  ideals  of  citizenship  and  its  responsibilities. 
Like  millions  of  others  I  have  looked  upon  Theodore 
Roosevelt  as  personifying  most  nearly  these  mind  and 
heart  types.  He  was  human  and  made  errors,  but  he 
was  heartful  and  earnest,  courageous  and  honest.  He 
worked  at  the  job  of  being  a  citizen  when  with  another 
temperament  he  might  have  been  a  loafer,  because  he 
never  had  to  work  for  bread,  that  great  industrial 

289 


290  THE  IKON  HUNTER 

incentive.  Always  active  and  giving  of  himself,  spend- 
ing and  being  spent,  he  has  the  highest  batting  average 
of  public  service  in  the  modern  history  of  the  nation. 
And  as  such  things  are  usually  interpreted  his  work  has 
been  unselfish.  In  a  higher  way  of  thought  his  labors 
have  been  the  essence  of  worthy  selfishness  for  social  and 
individual  welfare  including  himself. 

First  with  all  good  citizens  comes  the  good  of  the 
nation ;  then  the  good  of  those  agencies  that  contribute  to 
the  nation ;  then  the  man :  Country,  party,  individual. 

I  cared  only  in  this  way.  It  seemed  to  me  that  the 
Republican  party  had  attracted  to  itself  the  greater  vol- 
ume of  genius  for  government.  As  is  always  true  in  a 
successful  party  the  bad  entered  with  the  good.  Virtue 
in  party  should  be  and  always  will  be  at  friction  with 
vice  in  party.  Those  who,  as  participants  in  or  agents 
for  intrenched  privilege,  believe  in  government  by  the 
few  will  be  naturally  opposed  by  those  who  believe  in 
government  by  all  for  all. 

Mr.  Taft  might  be  nominated  by  force,  but  he  would 
be  defeated.  The  midyear's  elections  foreshadowed 
that  certain  result.  What  was  the  party  to  do  if  it 
would  achieve  the  success  within  itself  that  would  pre- 
serve in  control  its  best  element,  and  continue  it  in 
governmental  power  and  direction  ?  A  candidate  other 
than  Mr.  Taft  must  be  found.  This  thought  was 
one  common  to  many  earnest  minds.  The  field  to  select 
from  was  not  large.  But  there  were  some  good,  earnest, 
courageous  public  men,  and  more  were  being  created 
out  of  an  atmosphere  growing  from  an  aroused  public 
conscience.  Of  these  the  first  and  greatest  and  clearest 
and  most  consistent  and  courageous  was  Theodore  Roose- 
velt. His  own  idea,  as  he  had  told  me  and  all  who 
talked  with  him,  was  to  be  ready  to  serve  in  peace  or 


PRESIDENTIAL  CAMPAIGN  OF  1912      291 

war  at  any  time  his  country,  that  had  so  honored  and 
trusted  him,  demanded.  But  he  would  not  be  a  can- 
didate. He  must  be  drafted  and  the  call  must  be  un- 
mistakable. 

Now  it  is  one  thing  for  a  king  to  call  and  another 
thing  for  a  people.  There  may  be  ever  so  much  ma- 
terial for  a  chorus,  but  it  is  always  scattered,  untrained 
and  undirected.  A  big  Roosevelt  movement  began  all 
over  the  land.  He  was  unmoved  by  it.  In  fact  it  was 
so  intangible  as  to  be  difficult  of  measurement.  No  one 
man  or  men  started  it.  But  it  was  still  in  no  form  to 
carry  convictions  of  duty  and  sacrifice  to  Oyster  Bay. 

Alexander  Revell  headed  the  Roosevelt  movement  in 
Chicago.  Edwin  W.  Sims  was  associated  with  him. 
Mr.  Sims  was  from  Michigan.  Perhaps  that  is  why  he 
came  to  me. 

"  There  is  only  one  way  that  I  can  think  of  that  will 
formulate  this  Roosevelt  movement  so  that  it  will  com- 
pel him  to  be  a  candidate;  that  is  to  call  a  conference 
of  Republican  governors  and  pass  resolutions  urging 
Colonel  Roosevelt  to  come  out  and  do  his  duty." 

It  was  the  idea  of  Mr.  Sims.  It  appealed  to  me.  I 
signed  a  call  for  a  meeting  of  the  governors.  There 
were  not  many  Republican  governors,  only  nine  or  ten. 
The  States  had  fallen  like  bean-poles  before  the  anti- 
Taft  hurricane.  There  were  eight  governors  at  the 
meeting.  Seven  of  them  signed  the  call  eagerly.  The 
message  was  carried  to  Oyster  Bay.  Colonel  Roosevelt 
became  a  candidate.  The  steam-roller  national  con- 
vention in  Chicago  nominated  Taft.  Then  came  the 
revolt.  The  followers  of  Roosevelt  entered  upon  the 
formation  of  a  new  party.  This  I  opposed.  At  the 
first  meeting  in  Michigan  I  succeeded  in  preventing 
the  formation  of  a  progressive  party.  There  was  no 


292  THE  IKON  HUNTER 

progressive  principle  that  I  did  not  and  do  not  believe 
in  and  advocate.  The  thing  was  to  decide  what  instru- 
mentality would  most  quickly  secure  the  adoption  and 
application  of  progressive  reforms  in  government.  I 
am  firmly  convinced  that  the  great  majority  of  the  Re- 
publican party  was  progressive  and  is  so  to-day.  The 
only  thing  to  do  as  I  saw  it,  was  to  remain  in  the  party 
and  wrest  control  from  the  leaders  who  were  abusing  it. 
This  had  already  been  done  in  Michigan  and  other 
States,  and  it  seemed  particularly  unwise  to  desert  and 
leave  behind  all  the  good  work  that  had  been  done  up  to 
date.  Suffering  from  a  broken  foot,  I  had  managed 
to  attend  the  Lansing  meeting,  though  on  crutches.  An 
inflammation  in  the  injured  member  prevented  me  from 
attending  the  convention  at  Jackson  where  Senator 
Dixon,  of  Montana,  swept  men  off  their  feet  who  had 
promised  me  not  to  secede,  and  the  Progressives  in 
Michigan  were  organized. 

Roosevelt,  Taft  and  Wilson  ran.  I  made  it  plain 
that  I  would  remain  in  the  Republican  party  and  would 
vote  for  Roosevelt  as  a  Republican,  and  I  advised  other 
Republicans  to  do  the  same.  I  was  at  Deerfoot  Lodge 
when  I  got  the  news  that  Colonel  Roosevelt  was  shot. 
In  a  flash  I  reviewed  the  early  part  I  had  played  in 
getting  him  into  the  fight,  A  decision  to  go  and  help 
him  now  that  he  was  hors  du  combat  was  acted  upon  at 
once.  I  tendered  my  services  and  asked  to  be  sent 
wherever  the  committee  had  difficulty  in  getting  or  keep- 
ing speakers.  After  several  speeches  in  Chicago,  St. 
Louis  and  other  places  in  Missouri,  I  was  sent  to  Okla- 
homa. My  progress  in  Oklahoma  was  such  that  Wil- 
liam Jennings  Bryan  was  sent  to  follow  me.  I  closed 
the  campaign  in  Indiana,  too  far  away  to  enable  me  to 
reach  Sault  Ste.  Marie  in  time  to  vote. 


CHAPTEE  XXXVI 

OFF  FOE  MADAGASCAR,  ASIA  AND  AFRICA  FOR  A  LONG  TOTTR 
IN    THE    UNUSUAL    PARTS    OF    THE    EARTH 

MY  term  of  office  as  Governor  was  nearing  a 
close.  There  had  been  a  fight  for  some  good 
cause  every  day  and  I  had  enjoyed  every  mo- 
ment of  it.  It  was  touching  to  me  to  witness  the  evi- 
dence of  regard  so  plainly  shown  by  good  men  of  all 
parties.  It  made  me  forget  there  had  been  any  such 
thing  as  opposition  or  bitterness.  I  felt  that  I  was 
over-appreciated  and  too  well  paid.  The  University  of 
Michigan  and  Olivet  College  and  also  Alma  College,  had 
conferred  upon  me  the  honorary  degree  of  Doctor  of 
Laws.  I  was  the  first  governor  of  Michigan  to  be  thus 
honored ;  not  the  first  to  deserve  but  the  first  to  receive. 
Olivet  and  Alma  are  splendid  denominational  colleges. 
Their  recognition  of  me  could  not  be  interpreted  as  po- 
litical by  my  most  bitter  enemy. 

At  the  end  I  was  given  a  dinner  at  Hotel  Downey, 
Lansing.  Republicans,  Progressives,  Socialists  and 
Democrats  came  to  do  me  honor.  It  was  a  thank  God 
thing  and  I  was  overcome.  The  Democratic  Governor 
incoming  was  present  and  said  he  would  model  his  ad- 
ministration after  mine.  I  had  inducted  him  into  of- 
fice with  all  kindness,  respect  and  assistance.  The 
speeches  at  the  dinner  were  of  such  graciousness  as  few 
men  live  to  hear.  Reviewing  my  work  as  Governor, 
one  of  the  great  dailies  of  Michigan  said  editorially : 

"  Throughout  its  course,  the  Osborn  administration 

293 


294  THE  IKON  HUNTER 

lias  been  free  from  the  touch  of  scandal.  To  be  sure  it 
has  not  been  untroubled,  but  those  troubles  have  been 
of  the  clean  sort,  in  which  men  could  oppose  each  other 
with  honest  differences  of  opinion  and  without  shame. 
They  have  been  storms  rather  than  embarrassments. 
But  the  fact  is  the  troubles  of  his  administration  have 
been  brief  in  duration  and  inconsequential  in  effect 
and  may  be  easily  forgotten. 

"  Some  of  the  things  Governor  Osborn  set  out  to  do 
two  years  ago  have  been  accomplished.  In  other  things 
disappointment  has  been  his  portion.  But  in  success 
or  disappointment,  he  displayed  in  all  his  official  acts 
and  life  a  spirit  which  made  the  fortune  of  the  hour 
seem  a  matter  of  small  moment.  He  met  his  every  de- 
feat with  an  attitude  that  commanded  the  admiration 
which  usually  is  the  tribute  to  success  alone.  In 
friendly  or  in  hostile  sympathy  with  his  administration 
as  one  may  be,  yet  the  name  of  Osborn  cannot  be  de- 
nied place  beside  that  of  Blair,  the  war  Governor,  and 
of  Pingree,  the  first  insurgent,  in  the  roll  of  Michigan 
Governors. 

"  Reflect  now  on  the  two  years  of  Osborn's  governor- 
ship, and  consider  not  only  the  immediate  results  of 
it,  but  the  impulse  it  has  given  to  a  finer,  stronger  con- 
ception of  government  by  the  people  of  this  State  of 
ours.  The  injury  that  Osborn  has  done  is  solely  to 
Chase  S.  Osborn's  political  aspirations  —  if  any  he  has. 
The  good  that  Chase  S.  Osborn  has  wrought  is  the  in- 
alienable possession  of  the  State." 

The  House  of  Representatives  passed  resolutions  offi- 
cially commending  my  work. 

My  brief  exaugural  address  was  well  received  by  the 
Legislature  and  by  the  public.  I  was  deeply  content. 


A  LONG  TOUK  OF  THE  WOULD   295 

There  was  much  I  wished  to  do.  I  had  not  finished 
the  earth  in  travel  and  study.  There  remained  por- 
tions of  Africa  and  all  of  Madagascar.  My  wife  and 
I  left  at  once  for  the  East  and  across  the  seas.  We 
stopped  en  route  in  Washington,  where  I  addressed  the 
Michigan  Society,  upon  the  invitation  of  Judge  Mont- 
gomery, with  whom  I  had  sometime  clashed,  but  who  is 
so  big  that  he  has  forgotten  it  and  forgiven  me.  At 
the  State  Department  I  could  get  almost  no  information 
about  Madagascar.  This  made  me  decide  to  proceed 
to  France.  Madagascar  is  a  French  Colony.  France 
took  possession  of  it  one  year  before  the  United  States 
acquired  the  Philippines.  It  furnishes  a  splendid  op- 
portunity of  comparing  the  methods  and  colonial  poten- 
tiality of  the  two  nations. 

We  took  passage  on  the  French  liner  La  Touraine, 
with  the  same  captain  who  had  sent  the  Titanic  a  wire- 
less warning  of  the  iceberg,  that  was  unheeded. 

Either  at  the  wharf  at  Havre,  or  on  the  train  between 
there  and  Paris,  our  trunks  and  bags  were  broken  into 
and  robbed.  I  mention  this  because  we  have  only  suf- 
fered from  such  depredations  while  traveling  in  France, 
Italy  and  Spain. 

One  gets  the  idea  that  the  average  of  honesty  is  low 
among  the  European  Latins.  I  say  European  Latins 
because  we  have  found  the  South  American  Latin  peo- 
ples as  honest  as  any  others  in  the  world.  We  have 
been  warned  in  every  South  American  country  to  be- 
ware of  thieves  while  traveling,  just  as  the  American 
traveling  public  encounters  "  beware  "  signs  in  depots 
and  hotels,  at  home  and  on  ocean  steamers.  In  thou- 
sands of  miles  of  travel  in  South  America  I  have  never 
lost  an  article,  and  I  grew  to  be  less  watchful  there 
than  in  most  countries.  Friends  liviiiff  in  South  Amer- 


296  THE  IKON  HUNTER 

ica  uniformly  tell  me  that  petty  larceny  and  sneak  thiev- 
ing are  uncommon  there,  which  accords  with  my  ex- 
perience. 

Ambassador  Herrick  was  very  kind  to  us  in  Paris. 
He  saw  that  I  had  access  to  all  official  sources  of  in- 
formation. I  was  also  permitted  a  more  intimate 
knowledge  of  Dr.  Alfred  Grandidier,  the  famous  biolo- 
gist, and  his  work.  Grandidier  is  an  authority  upon 
nearly  every  branch  of  scientific  knowledge  pertaining 
to  Madagascar.  When  he  completes  the  volumes  he  is 
writing  they  will  form  an  exhaustive  treatise  upon  that 
big  and  interesting  island. 

We  sailed  from  Marseilles  on  a  stormy  day.  The 
Mediterranean  was  the  roughest  I  had  ever  seen  it  and 
it  grew  worse.  Off  Crete  we  nearly  foundered.  The 
storm  continued  for  four  days.  For  two  days  it  was  a 
hurricane  and  during  thirty-six  hours  our  ship  just 
headed  into  it,  and  the  log  did  not  record  a  single  knot 
of  progress.  Mrs.  Osborn  remained  in  our  stateroom 
because  it  was  too  rough  to  dress.  She  was  compelled 
to  live  in  the  upper  berth  on  account  of  the  depth  of 
water  in  the  room.  Other  women  were  hysterical,  and 
men  were  down  on  their  knees  in  prayer,  just  as  they 
always  rush  to  God  in  danger  and  helplessness  and  so 
often  forget  Him  at  other  times.  No  one  was  permitted 
on  deck.  Even  the  captain  wrung  his  hands.  He  had 
ordered  me  below  a  number  of  times.  Finally  learning 
that  I  was  working  with  the  deck  hands  helping  to  rig 
the  auxiliary  steering  gear  and  doing  other  things,  he 
made  me  a  member  of  the  crew.  During  all  of  it  my 
brave  wife  was  as  calm  as  could  be,  and  only  asked  me 
to  tell  her  and  give  her  enough  time  to  put  on  a  life 
preserver,  if  it  became  necessary.  Many  passengers, 
both  women  and  men,  wore  life  belts  for  two  days. 


A  LONG  TOUK  OF  THE  WOULD   297 

We  had  seen  trying  storms  in  the  Cape  Horn  region, 
in  the  China  Sea,  in  the  North  Atlantic  and  North  Pa- 
cific and  in  Biscay  and  the  Indian  Ocean,  but  nothing 
worse  than  this.  The  fearful  thing  on  the  Mediter- 
ranean in  a  bad  gale  is  lack  of  sea  room,  which  is  the 
great  menace  also  on  Lake  Superior  and  the  other  great 
lakes  of  the  world.  I  have  seen  Lake  Titicaca  so  storm- 
swept  that  hundreds  of  balsas  were  destroyed.  Fancy  a 
storm  on  the  roof  of  the  world  in  a  lake  more  than  two 
miles  up  in  the  clouds.  One  really  feels  as  if  he  might 
be  washed  into  illimitable  space. 

It  was  our  fourth  trip  to  Egypt,  but  neither  my  wife 
nor  myself  had  seen  the  Sahara  as  it  must  be  seen  to 
be  comprehended.  In  order  to  do  so  I  organized  a  cara- 
van for  the  purpose  of  journeying  over  the  sands  that 
are  finer  than  when  they  reposed,  unmoved,  on  the  vast 
floor  of  the  ancient  ocean  that  once  existed  over  the 
Bedouin  domain.  We  planned  to  go  some  hundreds 
miles  and  also  visit  the  Fayoum  Oasis,  either  outward 
bound  or  upon  our  return. 

We  have  the  slides  to  contend  with  at  the  Panama 
Canal.  At  the  Suez,  dredges  are  kept  at  work  con- 
stantly by  the  boiling,  slipping,  flowing  ooze  that  comes 
in  at  the  bottom  and  sides.  Compared  with  the  Panama 
Canal  the  Suez  is  not  much  of  an  engineering  product ; 
nor  when  compared  with  the  St.  Mary's  Falls  locks,  at 
Sault  Ste.  Marie,  Michigan,  where  the  lock  problem 
was  solved  for  Panama  and  for  the  world. 


CHAPTER  XXXVII 

SOME   REFERENCES    TO   BURMA,    CEYLON,    COCHIN-CHINA, 
TURKESTAN,    PERSIA 

IN"  Madagascar  I  was  made  an  honorary  member  of 
the  Academic  Malgache.  There  are  only  half  a 
dozen  honorary  members,  including  the  President 
of  France. 

The  French  authorities  jealously  guard  the  rare  fos- 
sils that  have  been  found  in  Madagascar,  where  so  much 
of  the  flora  and  fauna,  ancient  and  modern,  belongs 
alone  to  Madagascar. 

They  were  very  courteous  to  me.  I  was  lucky 
enough  to  discover  a  perfect  specimen  of  the  egg  of  the 
^Epyornis  Titans,  the  greatest  of  the  extinct  prodigious 
birds,  and  was  permitted  to  remove  it  from  the  country 
in  order  that  I  might  present  it  to  the  University  of 
Michigan.  Also  I  obtained  bones  of  the  ^Epyornis, 
flying  and  amphibious  lemurs,  and  a  complete  skeleton 
of  the  pigmy  hippopotamus,  a  rare  fossil.  I  shot  a 
large  modern  hippo  in  Africa  to  contrast  the  lilliputian 
with.  They  now  form  a  striking  contrast  in  the  mu- 
seum of  the  University  of  Michigan. 

The  Colonial  geologist  and  mineralogist  aided  me  in 
obtaining  a  complete  collection  of  the  minerals  and 
rocks  of  Madagascar  for  the  Michigan  College  of  Mines. 

English  missionaries  have  done  a  praiseworthy  work 
in  Madagascar.  They  went  there  nearly  a  hundred 

years  ago.     Now  out  of  a  population  of  between  three 

298 


BUKMA,  CEYLON,  COCHINCHINA     299 

and  four  millions,  there  are  more  than  five  hundred 
thousand  enrolled  Christians. 

At  Fort  Dauphin  we  found  an  American  Swedish 
Lutheran  mission  establishment  of  cheerful,  wholesome, 
self-sacrificing  missionaries  doing  fine  work.  No  one 
could  have  been  extended  more  consideration  and  kind- 
ness than  we  were  given  by  all  the  missionaries.  The 
most  unusual  Consul  Porter,  British  official  representa- 
tive, stationed  at  Antananarivo,  could  not  have  done 
more  for  his  King  than  he  and  his  charming  family 
did  for  us. 

The  United  States  Consul  to  Madagascar,  a  high- 
grade  Negro,  Mr.  James  G.  Carter,  at  Tamatave,  was 
thoughtful,  polite  and  efficient.  The  color  line  is  not 
drawn  officially  or  socially  and  Yankee  Consul  Carter 
was  having  the  time  of  his  life. 

Madagascar  is  apart  from  routes  of  common  travel. 
It  is  never  visited  by  the  tourist  class  and  has  not  been 
spoiled.  I  am  referring  to  Madagascar  very  briefly 
here  because  I  am  at  work  upon  a  more  elaborate  manu- 
script concerning  it,  which  I  hope  to  complete  for  pub- 
lication. 

In  Ceylon  we  visited  the  Anuradhpura  district  where 
extensive  ruins  dating  from  the  golden  days  of 
Buddhism  are  being  uncovered  and  preserved.  It  is  a 
fever  stricken  region.  Not  unlikely  this  caused  the 
decay  of  the  strong  peoples  that  competed  successfully 
in  their  time  in  all  the  activities  of  the  known  world. 
They  were  at  their  best  about  300  B.  c.  One  has  only 
to  go  to  Ceylon  and  read  the  Ramayana  to  have  both 
regard  and  respect  for  the  ancient  Cingalese. 

We  reached  Burma  in  time  to  participate  in  the  hun- 
dredth anniversary  of  the  arrival  of  the  American  Bap- 
tist missionary  Adoniram  Judson.  He  really  opened 


300  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

Burma.  The  British  followed,  as  they  have  been  often 
guided  by  the  blazed  trails  made  in  remote  portions  of 
the  world  by  American  missionaries. 

No  river  trip  in  the  world  surpasses  in  interest  that 
of  the  Irawaddy.  When  we  were  at  Bhamo  the  Tibe- 
tans, Chinese  and  English  were  guarding  their  frontier 
and  frequent  clashes  came. 

The  most  productive  ruby  mines  in  the  world  are 
along  the  Irawaddy.  American  drillers  have  developed 
rich  oil  fields  just  as  they  have  done  at  Baku.  Man- 
dalay  had  the  plague  and  three  hundred  a  day  were 
dying  from  it  when  we  were  there. 

Fascinating  indeed  is  Old  Pagan,  once  the  mightiest 
seat  of  Buddhism  and  still  showing  eight  thousand  pa- 
godas and  dagobas.  When  Genghiz  Khan  appeared  be- 
fore it  in  the  thirteenth  century,  there  were  standing 
thirteen  thousand  temples  of  Buddha.  The  King  tore 
down  five  thousand  to  obtain  material  for  use  in 
strengthening  his  fortifications.  The  Great  Khan  cap- 
tured and  sacked  the  city  despite  all  this  and  a  brave 
defense. 

Our  English  word  "  pagan  "  comes  from  here  just 
as  our  word  "  meander  "  is  from  the  tortuous  river  that 
laves  the  ruined  foundation  of  Diana's  ancient  Ephesus. 

In  Siam  we  found  an  American,  Jens  Westengaard, 
of  Chicago,  living  in  a  palace  as  adviser  to  the  King, 
and  ranking  only  next  below  the  sacred  white  elephant. 
The  story  of  Westengaard  and  his  splendid  work  in 
Siam,  and  his  potential  life  throughout  is  dramatic  and 
exhausts  the  imagination.  He  is  indeed  a  creditable 
American. 

Cochin-China,  French  China,  is  well  administered. 
Saigon  is  a  miniature  Paris.  The  French  manage  their 
colonies  with  sympathy,  understanding,  real  interest  and 


BURMA,  CEYLON,  COCHINCHINA     301 

strive  for  unalloyed  justice.  The  colonial  work  of  the 
highest  and  most  unselfish  character  in  the  world  is  that 
done  by  our  country  in  the  Philippines.  Next  comes 
France. 

In  Persia  we  encountered  the  failure  of  Morgan 
Shuster.  If  he  had  been  permitted  to  carry  out  his 
plans,  Shuster  might  have  done  wonders  for  Persia. 
But  it  was  not  in  the  cards.  England  and  Russia  were 
as  determined  upon  the  ravishment  of  Persia  as  the 
latter  has  been  of  Turkestan,  and  the  former  of  India. 
Mr.  Shuster's  absolute  tactlessness,  and  complete  failure 
to  grasp  the  situation,  only  hastened  the  clenching  of 
the  iron  bands. 

All  of  the  countries  engaged  in  the  great  European 
holocaust  have  at  one  time  or  another  despoiled  and  op- 
pressed weaker  peoples  of  the  world.  One  of  the  most 
guilty  is  Belgium.  Her  Congo  brutalities  curdled  the 
blood  of  all  who  knew  them.  Do  nations  reap  as  they 
sow  ?  Like  individuals  ?  I  think  so. 

In  Turkestan  and  throughout  the  "  sealed  dominions 
of  the  Czar  "  we  found,  as  all  must  find  who  go  or  read, 
much  to  engross  one  and  arouse  conjecture  and  imagina- 
tive thought.  Old  Maracanda  and  Merv,  and  the  val- 
ley of  the  Granicus,  where  Clitus  saved  Alexander's 
life,  only  to  be  stabbed  to  death  by  him  in  a  drunken 
fit  a  short  time  afterwards.  Alexander  did  not  die  of 
a  broken  heart  because  of  no  more  worlds  to  conquer. 
There  were  plenty.  He  died  of  remorse,  at  thirty-three, 
because  he  had,  while  drunk,  murdered  his  favorite 
general  and  best  beloved  friend  Clitus,  to  whom  he  owed 
his  life.  There  is  much  evidence  that  in  a  fit  of  sorrow 
over  his  crime  he  committed  suicide.  No,  Alexander 
did  not  die  for  want  of  worlds  to  master.  He  died  be- 
cause he  failed  to  conquer  himself. 


302  THE  IKON  HUNTER 

The  country  is  bleak  along  the  Perso-Turkestan 
frontier  and  much  of  it  a  desert.  At  oases  there  were 
nomadic  peoples,  with  home-woven,  camel's-hair  tents 
and  garments,  and  many  camels,  sheep,  goats  and  asses. 

Most  of  the  shore  line  of  the  Aral  and  Caspian  Sea 
is  forbidding,  gray  and  ashen  as  death.  Baku  is  a 
busy,  but  not  an  attractive  city.  Krasnovodsk,  Enzeli 
and  Resht  are  as  nearly  impossible  as  human  hives  can 
be.  Resht  is  a  disease-breeding  mudhole,  considerably 
below  the  level  of  the  Caspian.  Kiva  and  Bokhara  are 
just  as  they  were  in  Biblical  times. 

Once  in  Transcaucasia  all  is  different.  The  val- 
leys contain  a  people  that  have  spirit.  Russia  is  build- 
ing throughout  with  unusual  activity,  and  the  work  is 
done  to  last.  Just  as  much  life  as  in  the  most  exciting 
boom  days  of  Oklahoma,  and  in  addition  everything  is 
done  with  a  view  to  permanency. 

Tashkent,  in  Turkestan,  is  quite  a  modern  city.  Ti- 
flis  in  Transcaucasia,  is  much  more  so.  Between  them 
the  space  is  unfinished.  At  Geok  Tepee,  where  Sko- 
beleif  captured  the  beards  of  the  prophet,  horsetail  battle 
flags  mark  the  final  conquest. 

In  Siberia  there  is  a  great  development  going  on.  In 
many  ways  Siberia  is  the  hope  of  Russia.  Men  and 
women  of  independent  thought  and  courage  were  exiled 
there.  Often  when  their  term  of  exile  had  finished  they 
remained  in  their  new  abode.  George  Kennan's  picture 
of  Siberia  is  unjust,  unkind  and  untrue.  I  have  been 
three  times  across  the  remarkable  domain  that  the  robber 
Yermak  gave  to  his  Czar,  and  have  tried  to  know  Si- 
beria fairly.  It  is  not  as  cold  as  Saskatchewan  either 
in  summer  or  winter,  and  always  they  raise  more  wheat 
than  the  railroad  can  haul.  Irkutsk  is  really  the  lit- 
erary and  modern  art  center  of  Russia,  because  toler- 


BUEMA,  CEYLON,  COCHINCHINA     303 

ance  in  Kussia  for  the  humanities  first  began  there- 
abouts. 

Siberian  and  Russian  towns  generally  are  not  over- 
churched.  They  are  classified  practically  as  one  church, 
two  church  and  three  church  towns  and  so  on.  If  a 
community  can  support  one  church  that  is  all  it  is 
permitted,  until  it  grows  to  a  point  where,  without  great 
difficulty,  it  can  support  two.  I  am  inclined  to  think 
that  religion  in  Russia  is  less  an  economic  burden  than 
in  any  other  country  in  the  world.  There  seems  to  be  a 
gradual  rapprochement  of  the  Greek  and  Episcopal 
churches.  Their  amalgamation  would  be  a  good  thing 
for  them  and  for  the  world  no  doubt. 

It  was  the  early  part  of  the  year  1914.  Everywhere 
we  saw  Russian  soldiers  moving  towards  the  Austrian 
and  German  borders.  There  is  an  old  Bengali  saying 
that  when  soldiers  are  on  the  move  watch  for  trouble. 
We  had  been  away  from  newspapers  for  many  weeks. 
Nevertheless  I  concluded  that  war  was  going  on  or 
about  to  start.  In  a  few  weeks  it  burst  on  Europe  like 
an  elemental  demon,  leading  hosts  of  vampires  and 
furies. 

Rabindranath  Tagore,  of  whom  we  saw  mu,ch  and 
delightfully  while  in  Calcutta,  had  in  conversation  pre- 
dicted, like  a  prophet  of  old,  that  the  world  would 
quake  with  wholesale  murder  and  India  would  be 
avenged.  He  could  not  have  dreamed  it  would  be  so 
soon. 

I  was  in  his  home  when  the  money  of  the  Nobel 
prize  for  literature  was  handed  to  him.  He  cared 
deeply  for  the  generous  recognition  of  the  East  by  the 
West,  but  there  is  no  East  or  West  in  the  world  of  love 
and  art.  But  he  cared  most  because  he  could  further 
endow  his  boys'  school  at  Bolpur,  where  he  is  training 


304  THE  IKON  HUNTER 

young  men  who  will  carry  on  the  dream  of  his  life. 
That  is  the  restoration  of  the  pure  ancient  Brahmanism, 
the  first  monotheistic  religion  the  world  knows  anything 
about.  It  has  degenerated  into  a  depraved  animistic 
Hinduism. 

To  call  Tagore  a  Hindu,  as  is  commonly  done,  is  to 
call  Bergson  a  disciple  of  Nietzsche. 

Through  home  missionary  organizations  called 
Brahmo  Samaj,  they  are  endeavoring  to  convert  the  bull 
kissing  Hindus. 

I  told  Tagore  what  he  was  teaching  is  really  Christian- 
ity. He  agreed  with  me,  but  added  that  it  was  better 
policy  to  name  it  Neo-Brahmanism. 

It  is  the  spiritual  hope  of  India. 


CHAPTEE  XXXVIII 

I  DISCOVER  ANOTHER  GREAT  IRON  ORE  RANGE  THAT  WILL 
SOME  DAY  HELP  TO  SUPPLY  THE  WORLD 

WHILE  following  a  Sakalava  native  trail  in 
Madagascar,  just  like  a  Kaffir  path  in  Africa, 
I  came  to  a  stretch  where  the  dust  of  the  path 
was  red.  Searching  on  either  side  I  found  bowlders  of 
hematite  iron  ore.  These  I  traced  to  a  ridge  of  which 
they  were  the  talus.  I  traced  this  hogback  for  forty 
miles  and  came  to  neither  end.  In  many  places  along 
it  I  found  rich  iron  ore. 

Specimens  I  procured  showed  a  metallic  iron  con- 
tent of  sixty-four  per  cent,  and  nine-thousandths  of  one 
per  cent,  of  phosphorus.  The  analyses  were  made  by 
a  chemist  in  the  laboratory  of  one  of  the  great  iron  mines 
of  Lake  Superior. 

It  is  a  new  range  of  iron  ore  that  has  never  been  seen 
to  be  recognized  by  any  other  than  myself.  There  it 
lies  to  supply  mankind  when  busier  and  nearer  deposits 
are  exhausted.  It  is  located  almost  as  conveniently  to 
the  markets  of  the  world  as  the  Chilian  deposits,  back 
of  Coquimbo,  that  Mr.  Schwab  is  developing,  and  per- 
haps more  so  than  the  Minas  Geraes  district  of  Brazil, 
where  American  capital  is  interested. 

This  new  range  is  in  a  country  where  the  government 
is  stable  and  just,  and  taxation  is  low.  There  is  an 
unlimited  supply  of  native,  low-cost  labor.  At  present 

the  lands  are  wild;  that  is  they  are  owned  by  the  gov- 

305 


306  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

eminent  and  may  be  bought  for  a  few  cents  an  acre. 

I  feel  that  I  am  quite  within  the  limits  of  reason  when 
I  state  that  this  new  iron  range  is  likely  to  produce 
as  much  high  grade  Bessemer  ore  as  some  of  the  world's 
greatest  iron  regions.  I  am  making  further  investiga- 
tions. After  completing  this  work  I  shall  inform  the 
world  of  the  location  of  this  discovery. 

It  goes  to  prove  further  the  statement  of  Professor  C. 
K.  Leith,  of  the  University  of  Wisconsin,  made  in  his 
paper  on  the  "  Conservation  of  Iron  Ore,"  at  the  New 
York  meeting,  February,  1916,  of  the  American  Insti- 
tute of  Mining  Engineers,  to  the  effect  that  there  is  no 
danger  of  immediate  exhaustion  of  the  iron  ore  reserves 
of  the  world. 

When  the  late  James  J.  Hill  was  trading  on  his  Min- 
nesota iron  lands,  he  was  quoted  as  making  a  statement 
that  the  iron  ore  of  the  world  would  be  exhausted  in 
twenty  years.  It  caused  much  comment.  Mr.  Hill  de- 
nied making  the  statement.  It  bulled  the  iron  ore  land 
market  for  a  time,  and  increased  the  standard  of  meas- 
urement of  values  of  iron  ore  in  the  ground  which  had 
been  entirely  too  low.  It  was  during  the  period  of  low 
values  and  restricted  demand  that  Mr.  Carnegie  and  Mr. 
Rockefeller  secured  their  great  Lake  Superior  holdings. 


CHAPTER  XXXIX 

MANY  PEOPLE  OF  MICHIGAN  AGAIN  URGE  ME  TO  TAKE  UP 
THE  GONFALON   FOR   BETTER  THINGS  IN  THE  STATE 

WE  had  been  in  the  almost  unknown  world  for 
upwards  of  two  years.  Much  of  the  time  we 
were  beyond  reach  of  civilized  communica- 
tion. Some  of  the  time  I  was  where  no  white  man  had 
trodden  before.  Now  in  the  spring  of  1914  we  were 
entering  the  alive  world  again.  At  Baku  on  the  Cas- 
pian Sea  I  received  cablegrams  from  several  citizens 
of  Michigan  asking  me  to  be  again  a  candidate  for  Gov- 
ernor of  Michigan.  When  I  arrived  at  Paris  on  the 
way  home  I  found  a  mass  of  cablegrams  and  letters 
asking  me  to  make  the  race.  It  was  all  much  opposed 
to  my  inclination.  Nothing  except  a  sense  of  duty 
could  influence  me  to  consent.  I  was  poisoned  with 
malaria  and  had  been  bitten  by  the  tsetse  flies  and  was 
not  in  good  health.  That  I  should  make  the  matter 
one  demanding  full  and  very  earnest  consideration  was 
the  advice  given  to  me  by  Ambassador  Herrick.  He 
was  the  first  American  I  had  seen  in  more  than  a 
year.  He  said  I  owed  it  to  my  State  and  to  the  party 
to  enter  the  contest. 

In  Paris  at  the  time  were  several  prominent  Michigan 
men  for  whose  character  and  judgment  I  had  great  re- 
spect. They  repeatedly  urged  me  to  be  a  candidate 
as  a  matter  of  duty.  On  the  way  across  the  Atlantic 
on  the  Imperator,  I  discussed  the  details  of  the  situa- 

307 


308  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

tion  several  times  with  J.  Sloat  Fassett.  He  was  a 
conservative  and  I  a  progressive  Republican;  Fassett 
a  "  standpatter  "  and  I  an  "  insurgent."  But  I  found 
him  always  very  big  and  generous  and  gracious  in  his 
personal  views  and  statements.  Looking  to  the  welfare 
of  the  party  in  the  nation  he  urged  it  as  my  duty  to 
become  a  candidate. 

Very  clearly  in  my  mind  was  the  wish  that  I  would 
not  find  conditions  such  as  to  force  me  to  enter  the 
contest.  This  was  my  state  of  feeling  when  I  landed 
at  New  York.  Equally  plain  was  the  determination  on 
my  part  to  do  my  duty  if  I  could  come  to  see  it  clearly, 
and  to  come  to  know  the  way  was  my  daily  prayer. 

At  New  York  a  Michigan  delegation  met  me  and 
urged  me  to  become  a  candidate.  I  had  said  that  I 
could  imagine  no  conditions  that  would  make  it  neces- 
sary for  me  to  do  so.  And  I  deferred  a  decision.  On 
my  way  home  to  Sault  Ste.  Marie  I  was  asked  to  stop  at 
Lansing  where  a  reception  and  banquet  had  been  ar- 
ranged in  my  honor.  At  Lansing  the  situation  was 
made  very  plain.  There  seemed  to  be  a  real  demand 
for  my  services  as  a  candidate.  My  physician  told  me 
it  would  kill  me  to  go  into  a  campaign  in  the  then  con- 
dition of  my  health.  I  told  him  kill  or  no  kill,  I  would 
run.  It  was  late.  Other  candidates  had  been  at  work 
for  months.  I  went  from  county  to  county  speaking 
from  ten  to  twenty  times  a  day.  Great  crowds  came  to 
hear  me  and  to  welcome  me  home.  I  told  them  the 
heart's  truth  about  everything.  Every  day  and  often 
at  night  I  suffered  intense  pain,  but  the  pain  seemed  to 
be  a  pleasure  when  borne  for  a  good  cause.  I  enjoyed 
the  campaign  and  once  in  it  I  tried  to  justify  the  work 
of  my  friends  by  putting  every  pound  of  strength  I  had 
into  the  fight.  It  was  fine. 


FOE  BETTEK  THINGS  IN  THE  STATE     309 

I  won  the  nomination  for  Governor,  but  was  defeated 
for  election. 

I  was  very  happy.  To  me  the  interpretation  was  that 
I  had  strength  enough  to  make  the  fight,  defeat  certain 
agencies  and  sow  seed  for  public  ripening  and  whole- 
some harvest  by  and  by,  but  not  enough  to  go  on  with 
life's  battles  until  I  had  rested,  recuperated  and  driven 
out  the  jungle  poisons  that  gripped  me.  Now  I  was 
freed  so  as  to  be  allowed  to  do  this. 

Wars  are  not  always  won  by  single  battles,  any  more 
than  life's  work  is  done  by  lone  achievements.  One 
very  often  wins  when  he  appears  at  the  time  to  lose.  In 
the  essences  the  thing  is  to  offer  to  serve.  There  is  a 
heavy  load  to  carry;  perhaps  a  public  burden.  You 
offer  eagerly,  willingly  to  take  it  up  and  bear  it.  The 
task  is  given  to  another.  Therein  is  the  responsibility ; 
the  exaction.  The  only  thing  you,  who  have  been  re- 
jected at  the  time,  must  do,  is  to  be  ready  to  offer 
freely  and  unselfishly  again  to  serve. 

That  the  public  was  slow  to  believe  what  was  charged 
against  my  opponent  is  to  the  credit  of  the  people;  to 
their  fairness  and  sense  of  justice.  They  really  thought, 
or  a  great  many  did,  that  the  stories  were  libels  and 
pure  campaign  fiction.  Now  they  know  better.  I  have 
ever  found  the  public  ready  to  be  more  than  generous 
and  just.  Like  the  wholesome  individual,  all  it  wishes 
is  to  see  the  right  way  and  it  will  take  it. 

Soon  after  this  election  occurred,  in  the  fall  of  1914, 
I  was  invited  to  speak  at  many  important  places  in 
Michigan  and  elsewhere.  Everywhere,  including  Lans- 
ing, I  was  greeted  by  larger  and  kindlier  audiences  than 
I  ever  had  spoken  to  before.  It  was  as  if  it  had  begun 
to  dawn  upon  the  public  that  I  had  tried  to  render  a 
service  and  they  sought  to  give  me  belated  appreciation. 


310  THE  IKON  HUNTER 

That  was  unnecessary,  because  Michigan  has  given 
me  many  honors  and  always  has  recognized  me  beyond 
my  deserts. 

Shortly  after  I  went  into  Johns  Hopkins  Hospital 
at  Baltimore,  interluding  treatment  there  with  quail 
hunting  and  pruning  pecan  trees  in  southern  Georgia 
where  I  belong  to  a  little  club  of  close,  fine  friends  and 
where  also  we  have  a  bungalow.  Much  benefit  came  to 
me  in  a  physical  sense.  Then  Mrs.  Osborn  and  I 
started  for  the  Panama-Pacific  Exposition,  via  the  Pan- 
ama Canal.  On  the  steamer,  in  California  and  every- 
where I  appeared,  I  was  treated  with  that  generous  con- 
sideration and  kindliness  that  only  the  truly  inde- 
pendent and  spirited  American  citizenry  knows  how  to 
show.  I  was  especially  pleased  with  my  reception  when 
I  spoke  at  the  University  of  Missouri;  the  University 
Club  of  Chicago;  The  National  Geographic  Society  at 
Washington;  and  the  Chicago  Geographic  Society. 

When  the  dissolving  ice  and  snow  permitted  I  again 
buried  myself  in  the  wilds.  At  Duck  Island,  in  the  St. 
Mary's  River,  I  discovered  what  all  those  to  whom  the 
matter  has  been  presented,  agree  is  the  solution  of  the 
mystery  of  luminosity  in  fireflies  and  other  animal  life. 
It  is  produced  by  enzymes,  is  one  hundred  per  cent, 
in  efficiency  as  compared  with  fifteen  per  cent,  for 
electricity.  It  is  entirely  possible  that  enzymic  light 
may  be  developed  to  be  of  practical  service  to  mankind 
and  commercially  valuable. 

I  am  studying  the  aurora  borealis  and  the  aurora 
Australis.  To  several  scientists  I  have  submitted  my 
discoveries  and  theories  concerning  the  auroras  and 
they  have  been  interested  and  encouraging. 


CHAPTER  XL 

IN    CONCLUSION 

I  HAD  been  widely  mentioned  for  the  presidency. 
The  Chicago  Evening  Post  and  other  prominent 
high-grade  newspapers  presented  my  name  for 
consideration.  There  was  more  evidence  of  comforting 
confidence  and  encouraging  belief  in  me  given  by  a 
public  wider  than  my  charming  circle  of  personal 
friends.  In  the  autumn  of  1918  I  became  a  candidate 
in  the  primaries  for  the  Republican  nomination  for 
United  States  Senator  from  Michigan.  My  war  work 
had  taken  every  moment  of  my  time.  I  had  held  over 
four  hundred  war  meetings,  without  other  compensation 
than  the  deep  satisfaction  one  has  in  actively  manifest- 
ing a  desire  to  serve.  I  received  nearly  fifty  thousand 
votes,  but  was  defeated.  The  younger  men  to  whom  I 
most  appealed  were  off  to  the  war :  almost  two  hundred 
thousand  of  them.  I  felt  my  defeat  not  at  all,  because 
I  had  only  offered  to  try  to  carry  a  big,  spinous  load  for 
Michigan.  They  gave  it  to  another. 

The  reaction  of  America  to  the  conditions  created  by 
the  world's  war  followed  quickly  a  first  dim  sensing  and 
then  a  clear  perception  that  the  permanence  of  the  social 
structure  builded  here  by  the  people  for  themselves 
was  seriously  imperiled.  No  matter  what  designation 
of  word  or  phrase  was  used  to  etch  this  in  the  composite 
mind  there  was  a  feeling,  all  of  a  sudden,  that  safety 

and  insurance  of  independent  government  demanded 

311 


312  THE  IKON  HUNTER 

our  participation  in  the  war.  To  oost  people  making 
the  world  "  safe  for  democracy  "  meant  next  to  nothing 
tangible.  They  instinctively  felt  that  the  success  of  the 
attempt  to  impose  the  German  system  upon  us  meant  the 
death  of  cherished  ideals  and  fragrant  hopes.  It  did 
not  matter  to  them  whether  our  government  is  more  or 
less  efficient  than  an  autocracy:  it  is  their  government, 
is  what  they  wish  and  make  of  it  good  or  had,  and  there 
is  deep  confidence  that  in  time  it  will  be  perfect  enough 
for  mundane  purposes  if  the  people  are  not  molested  in 
progress  by  the  iron  hand  of  a  selfishness  so  singularly 
personified  as  to  be  impossible  of  coming  under  their 
control.  Many  even  realized  that  in  the  German  Em- 
pire was  an  efficiency  that  permitted  a  scientific  exploi- 
tation of  the  people  to  the  last  degree;  even  compre- 
hending meticulous  human  care  in  order  to  conserve  and 
selfishly  utilize  their  man  power.  And  at  the  same 
time  they  also  knew  that  in  the  United  States  there  are 
strata  beginning  with  the  economic  enslavement  of  cer- 
tain workers  and  ending  in  irresponsible  and  lightly 
bound  economic  social  groups.  Perhaps  our  masses 
could  not  have  made  an  analysis  and  framed  a  deduction. 
Their  intuition  springing  from  fountains  of  self-pres- 
ervation bid  them  unite  against  the  Germans  with  co- 
herent effectiveness.  At  the  bottom  of  it  all  the  masses 
in  our  country  feel  in  terms  varying  from  the  nebulous 
to  the  concrete  that  this  is  their  country  and  that  they 
are  responsible  for  it  and  that  it  can  only  endure  if  they 
protect  it  against  foes  from  without  or  within.  This  is 
the  guaranty  of  intelligent  popular  will  where  any  of 
the  genius  of  government  is  possessed.  It  will  be  our 
protection  from  the  plague  of  bolshevism  and  even  de- 
mands that  all  parties  demonstrate  an  ability  to  conduct 
the  affairs  of  government  sanely  if  they  are  to  be  en- 


IN  CONCLUSION  313 

trusted  with  it  for  any  long  period.  Somehow  the  sense 
of  order  and  proportion  attends  this  sense  of  possession. 
The  people  see  about  them  in  the  universe  the  applica- 
tion of  the  laws  of  order  in  the  diurnal  procession,  the 
coming  and  going  of  the  months,  the  rising  and  setting 
of  the  sun,  the  recurrence  of  moon  and  stars.  Perhaps 
they  could  not  discourse  philosophically  upon  these  beau- 
tiful phenomena,  but  they  have  deeply  ingrained  the 
lessons  they  teach.  One  average  man  said  to  me  that 
the  socialists  are  like  a  man  who  is  hungry  for  an 
apple  pie:  he  has  all  the  materials  of  flour,  shortening, 
apples,  spices,  sugar  and  the  fire  and  a  hunger,  but  he 
cannot  make  an  apple  pie.  How  true  it  is.  To  be  able 
to  distinguish  those  who  can  perform  the  services  of 
government  safely  is  the  first  requisite  of  a  free  people 
and  popular  government.  Uncle  Sam  is  an  icono- 
graphic  individual  made  up  of  all  his  hundred  million 
parts ;  and  there  are  more  parts  than  this,  though  not  all 
visible,  in  the  individual  unit.  Some  of  the  hundred 
million  of  Uncle  Sam  are  souls,  some  are  brains,  others 
are  lofty  urges  and  sentimental  desires;  some  are  legs 
and  arms  and  spine  and  heart  and  soul  and  liver  and 
spleen  and  so  on;  some  are  eczema  and  psoriasis;  some 
just  waste  material.  To  a  degree  the  individual  may 
elect  his  part  and  his  function ;  all  cannot,  because  some 
are  hopeless,  inert  derelicts,  operating  negatively  as 
more  or  less  dangerous  ferments.  But  after  all  the 
wholesome  parts  will  protect,  defend  and  keep  the  body 
of  the  nation  alive,  just  as  the  phagocytes  and  their  aids 
expel  pathogenic  germs  in  the  individual  and  cure  dis- 
ease. In  the  individual  there  is  a  time  limit  fixed 
beyond  which  there  can  be  only  disintegration  with  no 
hope  of  tangible  physical  renewal.  In  the  national  en- 
tity there  is  complete  renewal  every  thirty-seven  years, 


314  THE  IKON  HUNTER 

which  is  the  average  of  longevity  among  our  people.  In 
that  lies  the  great  hope;  the  death  of  the  aged;  the 
birth  of  the  new  essence.  The  habe  cries  lustily  at  birth 
as  the  old  man  moans  his  departure.  We  do  not  know 
much  about  what  becomes  of  us,  nor  does  it  matter 
much  to  us  while  in  this  sphere.  It  is  comforting  to 
know  that  theologians  and  scientists  are  one  in  pro- 
claiming immortality.  Thomas  Crowder  Chamberlin, 
head  of  the  department  of  geology  at  the  University  of 
Chicago,  chief  among  the  cosmic  philosophers  of  the 
world,  in  the  closing  paragraph  of  his  recent  book  upon 
the  "  Origin  of  the  Earth  "  says : 

"  It  is  our  (Professor  Chamberlin's)  personal  view  that  what 
we  regard  as  merely  material  is  at  the  same  time  spiritual, 
that  what  we  try  to  reduce  to  the  mechanistic  is  at  the  same 
time  volitional,  but  whether  this  be  so  or  not,  the  emergence 
of  what  we  call  the  living  from  the  inorganic,  and  the 
emergence  of  what  we  call  the  psychic  from  the  physiologic, 
were  at  once  the  transcendent  and  the  transcendental  fea- 
tures of  the  earth's  evolution." 

This  is  beautiful.  It  is  an  admission  by  a  great 
scientist  of  the  insufficiency  of  the  human  mind.  Many 
other  intellectuals  are  brave  enough  and  fair  enough  and 
sufficiently  without  the  dominating  ego  to  agree  with 
Professor  Chamberlin.  Thus  are  the  profound  minds 
grouping  to  convey  the  final  fact  that  where  man  ends 
God  begins.  Subsumed  with  religion  it  creates  a  per- 
fumed hope.  And  yet  man  is  so  human  and  cowardly 
at  times  and  superselfish.  While  the  war  was  going  on 
mankind  rushed  towards  God  as  in  the  resurgent  days 
of  the  Crusades;. peace  has  come  and  will  man  forget 
God  when  he  is  not  terrified  by  necessity  for  higher 
help?  It  has  been  ever  so. 

To  justify  the  war  we  must  rebuild  Ihe  world ;  nor 


My  father 
George  Augustus  Osborn 


IN  CONCLUSION  315 

must  we  hide  the  fact  from  view  that  man's  selfishness, 
man's  inhumanity,  man's  intolerance  have  created  the 
conditions  that  have  sprung  all  the  wars  forever  and 
ever.  Is  it  unkind  or  unjust  or  unfair  to  recall  that 
within  the  brief  cycle  of  a  century  Great  Britain,  Kus- 
sia,  France  and  Italy,  not  to  forget  our  part  too,  have 
seized  nearly  two-thirds  of  the  surface  of  the  earth  ? 
Subject  peoples  in  India,  Burma,  Trans-Caspia,  Africa, 
Madagascar  and  elsewhere  numbering  a  billion  souls 
have  been  wrung  for  head  taxes.  Just  a  little  time  ago 
Great  Britain,  at  the  time  of  the  Sepoy  uprising,  loaded 
live  Indians  into  cannon  and  shot  them  out  for  schreck- 
lichkeit.  More  recently  we  gave  the  Moros  the  water 
cure  for  the  same  example.  Within  a  half  dozen  years 
the  inhuman  atrocities  in  the  Belgian  Congo  perpetrated 
by  the  Belgian  Government,  with  no  madness  of  war 
to  cause  insane  acts,  shocked  the  world.  Now  it  would 
do  no  good  to  call  attention  to  these  better  forgotten 
blood  marks  were  it  not  necessary  to  determine  whether 
an  indictment  of  a  present  people  can  be  made  for  the 
crimes  of  their  progenitors.  We  of  to-day  cannot  be 
to  blame  unless  we  condone  and  continue  the  sins  of 
yesterday.  Consequently  upon  this  very  day  we  are 
called  upon  practically  to  decide  whether  we  will  per- 
mit to  continue  the  era  of  intolerance  and  antagonism 
or  supplant  it  with  a  period  of  tolerance,  justice,  coop- 
eration and  sincere  goodwill.  Platitudes  will  not  be 
sufficient  for  the  stomach  of  our  people  no  matter  how 
musical  they  may  sound  to  the  senses.  There  must  be 
a  clear  admission  that  the  human  derelicts  of  to-day  are 
the  blighted  usufruct  of  the  injustice  of  yesterday ;  the 
economic  unfairness. 

No  brighter  ray  illumes  the  world's  political  firma- 
ment than  our  policy  in  the  Philippines.     We  really 


316  THE  IRON  HUNTER 

seem  to  have  done  more  in  two  decades  to  advance  a 
less  apt  people  there  than  the  British  have  achieved  in 
India  during  more  than  a  century.  It  is  not  intended 
that  these  comparisons  shall  he  odious,  for  we  have  done 
better  with  our  suzerain  peoples  than  with  many  of  our 
citizens  at  home.  It  is  surely  demanded  that  we  shall 
do  more  than  talk  our  best ;  we  must  do  our  best ;  not  in 
spots;  everywhere. 

After  all  there  is  progress,  even  if  the  world  does 
fall  over  the  edge  of  the  precipice  every  so  often  and 
flounder  in  what  appears  to  be  abysmal  despair.  It  is 
not  satisfying  to  survey  the  social  growth  by  decades, 
but  if  we  will  begin  with  the  Java  man  and  his  Neander- 
thal contemporary  and  carry  our  vision  on  to  the  Cro- 
naagnon  and  the  Vazimba  and  then  on  to  Lloyd  George, 
Clemenceau,  Wilson  and  Roosevelt,  we  can  have  some 
food  of  assurance  that  the  growth  tendency  will  con- 
tinue until  we  shall  have  to  scratch  more  deeply  to  un- 
cover the  carnivorous  cave  dweller.  It  took  eras  for  the 
eohippus  to  become  a  horse  and  the  dodo  to  become  an 
aeroplane.  Perhaps  our  greatest  concern  comes  from 
a  tendency  to  regard  ourselves  and  our  times  too  seri- 
ously. If  I  were  to  endeavor  to  coagulate  wisdom  into  a 
short  sentence  it  would  be :  Do  your  best  and  do  not 
quarrel  with  Providence. 

The  dearest  hope  of  mankind  lies  beyond  the  horizon 
of  the  present.  We  shall  attain  it. 


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'HE  following  pages  contain  advertisements  of  a 
few  of  the  Macmillan  books  on  kindred  subjects. 


COLONEL  ROOSEVELT'S  OWN1  STORY  OF  HIS  LIFE 

Theodore  Roosevelt:  An  Autobiography 

Illustrated,  8vo,  $3.00 

"  The  vigor  and  directness  for  which  he  is  justly  admired  show  them- 
selves in  every  sentence  of  his  book.  .  .  .  Emphatically  and  unmistaka- 
bly the  author  has  stamped  himself  on  every  page  of  his  book,  and  no 
reader  desiring  a  better  acquaintance  with  him  will  be  disappointed  in  this 
ample  autobiography." —  The  Dial. 

"  A  book  of  extraordinary  personal  fascination.  ...  A  record  of 
Theodore  Roosevelt's  internal  and  external  life,  a  survey  of  his  boyhood, 
his  youth,  and  his  manhood.  A  book  of  his  ideas,  his  ideals,  and  his 
practical  outlook  on  life,  a  book  that  reflects  his  temperaments." 

—  Boston   Evening   Transcript. 

TWO  NOTABLE  BIOGRAPHIES  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Theodore*Roosevelt:  The  Boy  and  the  Man 

BY  JAMES  MORGAN 

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"  My  aim,"  says  the  author,  "  has  been  to  present  a  life  of  action  by 
portraying  the  varied  dramatic  scenes  in  the  career  of  a  man  whose  energy 
and  faith  have  illustrated  before  the  world  the  spirit  of  Young  America." 

"The  ideal  biography   of   President  Roosevelt."  —  New   York   Times. 

"  It  portrays  vigorously  and  with  enthusiasm  the  very  dramatic  scenes 
in  a  life  of  unusual  originality." — Philadelphia  North  American. 

Theodore  Roosevelt :  The  Citizen 

BY  JACOB  RIIS 

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"  It  is  written  from  the  heart.  It  breathes  sincerity  and  conviction  in 
every  line.  It  emphasizes  not  too  much  the  forces  and  influences  which 
lifted  Theodore  Roosevelt  to  the  Presidency,  as  the  qualities  that  make  his 
personality  and  underlie  his  character.  It  is  a  refreshing  and  stimulating 
picture  —  one  that  will  carry  encouragement  to  every  reader  whose  heart  is 
enlisted  in  the  struggle  to  exorcise  corruption  and  oppression  from  our 
body  politic."—  New  York  Tribune. 


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Marcus  Alonzo  Hanna: 

His  Life  and  Work 


BY  HERBERT  CROLY 
Author   of   "  The   Promise   of  American   Life." 

Illustrated,  Cloth,  8vof  $3.00 

In  preparing  the  material  for  this  biography  a  great  deal  of  time  and 
care  was  spent  in  the  attempt  to  make  it  complete  and  accurate.  In  the 
first  place  an  exhaustive  collection  was  made  of  all  documents  bearing  upon 
Hanna's  life  and  work,  including  all  his  available  correspondence.  The 
material  obtained  from  this  source  was  not,  however,  of  the  same  value 
and  importance  that  it  frequently  is  in  the  case  of  prominent  men.  Mr. 
Hanna  was  a  leader  rather  than  a  statesman.  The  most  critical  part  of 
his  work  was  transacted  by  means  of  private  personal  conferences,  and  an 
account  of  his  life  would  necessarily  be  very  inadequate  which  was  not 
based  to  some  extent  upon  a  knowledge  of  what  occurred  at  some  of  these 
conferences.  In  order  to  meet  this  need,  all  of  Mr.  Hanna's  associates  in 
business  and  politics  were  interviewed  and  statements  of  their  relations 
with  Mr.  Hanna  obtained.  Mr.  Croly  has  made,  it  his  main  object  to  pre- 
pare a  good  narrative.  Mr.  Hanna  was  a  man  of  action,  who  was  doing 
things  all  his  life  and  whose  career  was  a  succession  of  surprises  not 
merely  to  the  public,  but  to  his  friends  and  to  himself.  His  life  affords 
consequently  the  material  for  a  quick-moving  story,  and  every  other 
aspect  of  it  has  been  subordinated  in  the  attempt  to  bring  out  this  value. 
The  book  is  not  about  Mr.  Hanna's  times  or  his  associates,  or  even  his 
opinions;  it  is  about  the  man  and  the  unfoldng  of  his  career.  The  man 
is  much  more  interesting  than  anything  or  any  succession  of  things  which 
he  accomplished.  He  made  a  vivid  personal  impression  on  his  contempo- 
raries, the  effect  of  which  is  gradually  wearing  off  because  his  work  did 
not  have  as  much  permanent  value  as  his  personality. 

"  An  interesting  and  instructive  study,  which  is  not  only  a  '  human 
document '  but  incidentally  a  comprehensive  study  of  American  politics 
during  the  last  two  decades  of  the  nineteenth  century." —  New  York  Sun. 

"  A  biography  that  reads  like  historic  romance  ...  to  all  who  knew 
Senator  Hanna,  Mr.  Croly's  book  is  of  breathless  interest.  To  all  Ameri- 
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War  and  Revolution  in  Russia,  1914-1917 

BY  GENERAL  BASIL   GOURKO 

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General  Gourko's  memoirs  are  of  real  historic  interest.  Here  is  a  record 
describing  events  from  the  mobilization  of  the  Russian  army  to  the 
time  of  the  Tsar's  abdication.  By  that  time  General  Gourko  had  re- 
signed and  had  been  arrested  and  confined  in  the  fortress  of  Sts.  Peter 
and  Paul.  The  descriptions  of  battles  and  campaigns,  of  the  crucial 
winter  of  1915-16,  of  the  entry  into  Roumania,  are  the  first  to  be  printed 
from  the  point  of  view  of  a  general  on  the  field.  The  murder  of  Raspu- 
tin, the  political  changes  preceding  the  revolution,  Kerensky's  first 
steps  in  government,  the  first  effects  of  the  revolution  —  all  these  things 
are  faithfully  and  dispassionately  reported.  The  book  is  dedicated  to 
the  general's  heroic  wife,  who  was  killed  when  the  Germans  shelled  a 
bandaging  station  behind  the  French  lines. 

Recollections  of  a  Russian  Diplomat 

BY  BARON  EUGENE  DE  SCHELKING 


,  $2.50 

Besides  being  an  amazing  and  stirring  story,  this  is  a  permanently  im- 
portant historical  document.  It  epitomizes  the  case  of  the  people  and 
democratic  government  against  government  by  autocracies  and  sham- 
ming chancellories.  The  writer  escaped  from  Russia  by  pawning  his 
wife's  jewels.  He  came  to  Canada  and  electrified  the  readers  of  Amer- 
ican papers  by  his  revelations  of  court  life  in  the  Balkans.  He  foresaw 
the  inevitable  end  of  monarchy  :  there  never  was  a  clearer  case  of  suicide. 
His  volume  opens  with  an  account  of  the  closing  years  of  the  reign 
of  Alexander  III  ;  then  comes  the  story  of  Nicholas  and  his  ministers. 
The  German  Emperor  and  his  relations  with  Nicholas,  the  leading 
actors  in  the  Balkan  affairs,  the  negotiations  preceding  Roumania's 
entrance  into  the  war,  the  conditions  of  the  court  under  the  influence 
of  Rasputin,  and  the  character  of  the  chief  ministers,  are  some  of  the 
topics  taken  up  in  the  different  chapters.  Finally  there  is  a  section 
discussing  the  course  of  the  Russian  Revolution. 


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Reconstruction  and  National  Life 

BY   CECIL   FAIRFIELD    LAVELL 

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The  purpose  of  Professor  Lavell's  new  volume  is,  primarily,  to  sug- 
gest and  illustrate  an  historical  approach  to  the  problem  of  recon- 
struction in  Europe.  Professor  Lavell  will  be  remembered  as  author, 
with  Professor  Charles  E.  Payne,  of  "  Imperial  England,"  published 
in  the  fall  of  last  year. 

Problems  of  Reconstruction 

BY   ISAAC   LIPPINCOTT 

Associate  Professor  of  Economics,  Washington  University 

Cloth,  ismo,  $1.60 

"  From  an  industrial  point  of  view  the  nations  at  war  are  con- 
fronted with  two  groups  of  problems.  Stated  briefly,  the  first  group 
contains  questions  of  concentrating  industrial  effort  largely  on  war 
production,  of  diverting  men,  materials  and  financial  resources  to  the 
essential  industries  and  of  curtailing  the  operations  of  all  the  rest,  of 
regulating  commerce  with  foreign  countries,  and  of  formulating 
policies  and  methods  for  the  accomplishment  of  these  ends.  In 
short,  this  is  principally  a  question  of  development  of  war  control 
with  all  that  this  implies.  The  second  group  of  problems  arises  out 
of  the  first.  It  involves  such  questions  as  the  dissolution  of  the  war 
organization,  the  removal  of  the  machinery  of  control,  the  restoration 
of  men,  funds,  and  materials  to  the  industries  which  serve  the  uses 
of  peace,  and  the  reestablishment  of  normal  commercial  relations 
with  the  outside  world.  The  latter  are  post-war  problems.  Their 
prompt  solution  is  necessary  because  the  war  has  turned  industrial 
and  social  life  into  new  channels,  and  because  it  will  be  necessary 
for  us  to  restore  the  normal  order  as  quickly  as  possible.  These 
brief  statements  outline  the  task  of  this  volume." 


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